Evolution

Part 1

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This volume contains the October 1901 Publisher's Catalogue, however the catalogue is not listed in the regular Table of Contents. The Catalogue follows the final Chapter.

Other Transcriber Notes appear at the end of this e-text.

THE CHURCHMAN'S LIBRARY EDITED BY J. H. BURN, B.D.

EVOLUTION

+------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | THE CHURCHMAN'S LIBRARY | | | | EDITED BY | | JOHN HENRY BURN, B.D. | | Examining Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Aberdeen. | | | | THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH CHRISTIANITY. By W. E. COLLINS, | | M.A., Professor of Ecclesiastical History, King's | | College, London. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. [Ready. | | | | THE CHURCH AND THE SACRAMENTS. By E. T. GREEN, M.A., | | Professor of Hebrew and Theology at St. David's College, | | Lampeter. | | | | THE CHURCHMAN'S PRIMER. By G. HARFORD-BATTERSBY, M.A. | | | | THE CHURCHMAN'S DAY BOOK. By J. H. BURN, B.D. | | | | THE ANGLICAN CHURCH IN THE COLONIES AND MISSION FIELD. By | | ALLAN B. WEBB, D.D., Assistant Bishop to the Bishop of | | Brechin. | | | | HISTORY OF THE PAPACY. By J. P. WHITNEY, M.A. | | | | OUR CONTROVERSY WITH ROME. By J. M. DANSON, D.D. | | | | THE WORKMANSHIP OF THE PRAYER BOOK. By JOHN DOWDEN, D.D., | | Bishop of Edinburgh. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. [Ready. | | | | A POPULAR INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT. By ANGUS M. | | MACKAY, B.A. | | | | A POPULAR INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT. By J. H. | | SHEPHERD, M.A. | | | | THE HEBREW PROPHET. By L. W. BATTEN, Ph.D. | | | | AN INTRODUCTION TO TEXTUAL CRITICISM. By A. M. KNIGHT, | | M.A., Fellow and Dean of Gonville and Caius College, | | Camb. | | | | SOME OLD TESTAMENT PROBLEMS. By JOHN P. PETERS, D.D., | | D.Sc. | | | | SOME NEW TESTAMENT PROBLEMS. By ARTHUR WRIGHT, M.A., | | Fellow and Tutor of Queens' College, Cambridge. Crown | | 8vo, 6s. [Ready. | | | | BIBLE REVISION. By J. J. S. PEROWNE, D.D., Bishop of | | Worcester. | | | | DEVOTIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE PAULINE EPISTLES. By JOHN GOTT, | | D.D., Bishop of Truro. | | | | PREACHING. By FREDERIC RELTON, A.K.C. | | | | ENGLISH HYMNS AND HYMN TUNES. By H. C. SHUTTLEWORTH, M.A., | | Professor of Pastoral and Liturgical Theology, King's | | College, London. | | | | THE WITNESS OF ARCHÆOLOGY. By C. J. BALL, M.A., Chaplain | | of Lincoln's Inn. | | | | ENGLISH ECCLESIOLOGY. By J. N. COMPER. | | | | CONFIRMATION. By H. T. KINGDON, D.D., Bishop of | | Fredericton. | | | | INSPIRATION. By Canon BENHAM, D.D. | | | | MIRACLES. By THOMAS B. STRONG, B.D., Student of Christ | | Church, Oxford. | | | | PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. By V. H. STANTON, D.D., Ely | | Professor of Divinity, Cambridge. | | | | EVOLUTION. By FRANK B. JEVONS, M.A., D.Litt., Principal of | | Bishop Hatfield's Hall, Durham. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. | | | | THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN HERE AND HEREAFTER. By Canon | | WINTERBOTHAM, M.A., B.Sc., LL.B. Cr. 8vo, 3s. 6d. | | [Ready. | | | | THE GREAT WORLD RELIGIONS FROM A CHRISTIAN STANDPOINT. By | | H. E. J. BEVAN, M.A., Gresham Professor of Divinity. | | | | COMPARATIVE RELIGION. By J. A. MACCULLOCK. | | | | ENGLISH ECCLESIASTICAL LAW. By W. DIGBY THURNAM. | | | +------------------------------------------------------------------+

EVOLUTION

BY FRANK B. JEVONS, M.A., D.LITT. PRINCIPAL OF BISHOP HATFIELD'S HALL, DURHAM

METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET, W.C. LONDON 1900

PREFACE

The object of this volume is to raise the question: if we accept the Theory of Evolution as true in science, how should it modify the thought and action of a man who wishes to do his best in this world? The question is necessary because we find that different and inconsistent conclusions on the point have been reached by men speaking in the name of science and speaking with authority. These differences are due not to anything in science, but to certain extra-scientific assumptions. To test the worth of such assumptions is the work of philosophy; and this volume is accordingly an essay in philosophy. Science is but organised common sense. Science and Religion both claim to deal with realities. The realism of common sense, therefore, the form of philosophy to which both seem to point, is that which is set forth here.

CONTENTS

PAGE

I. OPTIMISM 1

II. ILLUSION 14

III. PESSIMISM 24

IV. IDEALISM 38

V. THE REAL 60

VI. EVOLUTION AS THE REDISTRIBUTION OF MATTER AND MOTION 72

VII. NECESSITY 100

VIII. INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE 138

IX. CONSEQUENCES 152

X. THE CHESS-BOARD 163

XI. THE COMMON FAITH OF MANKIND 184

XII. PROGRESS 203

Part 2

XIII. EVOLUTION AS PURPOSE 238

XIV. CONCLUSION 273

APPENDIX. ON BISHOP BERKELEY'S IDEALISM 289

INDEX 297

EVOLUTION

OPTIMISM

Innumerable writers at the end of the nineteenth century have reviewed the changes which in the last fifty years have come over the civilised world. The record indeed is admitted on all hands to be marvellous. Steam, electricity, machinery, and all the practical inventions of applied science have added enormously to the material wealth, comfort, and luxury of mankind. Intellectually, the bounds of pure science have been vastly enlarged; and the blessings of education have been extended to the poorest members of the community. Philanthropic and religious activity manifests itself in a thousand different organisations. We are never tired of repeating, that changes which in the first half of the century would have been pronounced impossible and incredible, at the end of the century are accomplished facts.

But amongst all these changes one is almost universally overlooked, and that the most characteristic, the most remarkable, and the most important: the face of civilisation has come to be illumined by hope. Great as is the progress of the last fifty years, we count it as nothing compared with that which is in store for us. To the discoveries of science it is felt that no bounds can be set; what a day may bring forth in the way of the extension of man's control over the forces of Nature, what secrets of Nature the chemist in his laboratory may light upon at any moment, no man can surmise, but everyone is confident that things will be discovered as marvellous to us now as the telegraph and telephone to our predecessors of the pre-scientific age. In the treatment of political and social questions the same deep-seated conviction prevails that progress can and will be made: the conditions and causes of poverty can be ascertained by patient study, and when ascertained can be dealt with. The laws of physical health and cleanliness have not refused to reveal themselves, nor are moral health and cleanliness without their laws. In fine, if the best energy of the age is everywhere devoted to the increase of knowledge, the advancement of morality, and the diffusion of comfort, it is because everywhere there is hope. In the social as in the individual organism hope raises the tide of life, increases vitality, and stimulates the system. Hence this general discharge throughout the nervous system of society, manifesting itself in the vigour and energy with which all schemes for improvement are taken up and carried out. That discoveries will be made and progress effected is as certain as that gold is to be found in a goldfield; the only practical question is, By whom? Who is to be the lucky man?

To us who have witnessed the advance which has given rise to this universal hope, the hope itself seems so reasonable and so justifiable that we are apt to overlook the fact that it is without parallel in the history of mankind. Never, of course, has any generation of men imagined its own lot perfect; all have had their ideals, and all have believed their ideals to be true. But whereas we place the realisation of our ideals in the future, all previous generations have placed it in the past: the Golden Age till now has always been regarded as the starting-point of man's history, not its goal. All races have looked back with pride upon a heroic past; all mythologies tell of the better and brighter lot that was in the beginning man's; all poets sing of the brave days of old; all fairy tales begin with "once upon a time." The historians of Greece and Rome discovered no progress in the history of their countries, but only degeneration from the patriotism and simplicity of earlier times, or at best a series of changes making its round like the circle of the year's seasons. The philosophers of Greece are mainly occupied, when they deal with sociological questions, with the causes of corruption and decay of constitutions; and, if they frame ideal constitutions, they intend them to be final; they do not imagine them to have any possibility of growth. In modern times the same tendency has been equally manifest. Political revolutions have always aimed, not at introducing a new, but at restoring an old state of things: the actors in the French Revolution even dressed and posed as ancient Greeks and Romans. In philosophy, civilisation, as being artificial, has been regarded as a degeneration from a "natural" state of man which was at once primitive and perfect.

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