7/24/2019 November 24, 1859
1/4
The
Nation.
The
~
MR. CHARLES DARWIN, who hasust passed
away full of years an d honor,
is
probably the
man whohas done most to make the nine-
teenth century famous, full as it has been of
wonders, because he has done more than any
other man since Copernicus to change the
ideas of the civilized world ouching mans
relations to the physical universe. Coperni-
cus and Kepler may be said to have closcd
the medizval epoch, and fatallyshaken he
autho rity of the Church in the domain of nat-
ural philosophy, but then they never reached
the popularmind, and produced but little
rearrangement
of
ideas outside the scientific
world. Xoreover, the doctrine of evolution
as anxplanation of the earth and the
heavenly bodies as we now see them, had
made its appearance long before Darwihs
day, without producing much impression on
morals, or theology, or politics. It was Dar-
wins applicat ion of it to the explanation of
the animal world,
as
we now see it , which
made it a really great force in human affairs
-a forcewhich, though t may be said to
have been felt for but little more than twenty-
five years, has already profoundly aft ected the
modern way of lookingatnearlyall social
problems. It is safe to say that there is
hard ly any sphere of hu man activity in which
the influence of his ideas isnot elt in a
greater or less degree, and t bids fair to
grow with n accelerated ratio. The
hos-
tility with which they were a t first received
by he Church has alreadygreatly abated,
an d probably the best educated and mosl
influential portion of the clergy of all de-
nominations now allow them to govern their
expositions of mans relation to the unseen
as well
as
the seen universe, and are at
least
content with his explanation of the process
through Tvhich the race became self-conscious
and moral.
It is impossible to enumerate here all the mayt
in which his influence has stimulated or con.
trolled sociological investigation and legisla-
tion. Its more obvious effects are to be seenn thc
great impetus given within the last quarter of
a century to inquiry into themental and
physical condition of the savages, and in thc
greatly increased popular interest in compara-
tive anatomy and comparative politics.
Such
books as the late
BIr.
Bagehots account of
nation making, nwhich the Darwinian
process of natural selection s applied o the
origin and growth of political societies, are un-
doubtedly due o Mr. Darwins suggestion. T c
the same agency
we
must ascribe the gre:l1
stimulus given of late in legislation to the im-
provement of surroundings as a means of im.
proving human character.
No
more seriouc
blow was ever given
to
the ancient plan of
reformingmankind by simple rewards and
punishments, than Darwin gave when he
firs1
pointed out he enormous influence, moral
as well as physicd, of the environment
Lnd more at,tention given to betteringhe
:onditions of mens livcs as the real mcans of
)ettering their lives, and less and less confi-
tence reposed in simple commandsaddressed to
:onduct. In fact, there are some signs that this
nfluence is proving too strong, and carrying
)oth law-givers and philanthropists nto he
langerous extreme
of
underrating the power
)f the human will working against environ-
nent. I t must be admitted, too, that theappli-
:ation of the theory of natural selection, or, as
-1erbert Spencer calls it, the survival of the
ittest, to social and political arrangements,
iseful as it is in giving effort a rational and
ruitfuldirection,has some tendency to re-
xess sympathy for weakness and inca-
lacity. Darwinism, in other words, has done
something for Bi smrc kism. I t gives might a
lew itle to the posscssion of the earth, and
nakes the wall seem more than ever
,he proper d esh ati on of the incapable,
;he inconsequent, the feeble, and the sickly.
That the race wlll
be
the better cvcntually for
his immense revelation (for such i t certain y
is) of theway n which, as far as man on
m t h is conccrncd,
I _
through
the
ages
one
unccssing purpose uns,
there can be no doubt. But the period of
transition from the older view, wllich provid-
ed so large and even honored a place in na-
ture for helplessness, and ignorance, and weak-
ness, is ikely to havemany dark places in
it, in which tlie most orthodox evolutionists
will be puzzled and tried.
It is a significant circumstance that the sub-
committee of the Committee on Banking and
Currency in theIIousehave agreed upon
a
report-a very able one, by the way-concur-
ring in the recommeudations of the Secretary
of the Treasury and the Director of the Nint
regarding silver coinage and silver cert,ificatee
t hat is, recommending the discontinuance
of both. There is
no
evidence, however, that
this committee was packed against silver.
The Speaker was himself a silver mxn, reprc-
scnting a State which gave nearly all its votes
for the Silver Bill.
So, also, was
the Director
of the Mint, who held a scat in Con-
gress at the time.
So
far as packing
might go it would bc more reasonable to loo
