TENTATIVE CREATION.
IF Mr. Darwin's works have established anything, they have established that one of the great active principles of the universe is, so to say, the principle of tentative creation, i.e., the principle of creating varieties and modifications of type tending in all directions, and of leaving to the experiment of actual trial the determination of the question which is fittest to survive, and which is doomed to vanish and be no more seen. Mr. Darwin has himself pointed out repeatedly that though he can very often show why one sort of variation triumphs over another, why the superior length of wing and sharpness of beak which help the hawk to earn its livelihood, and the superior beauty of plumage which helps the peacock to obtain the best mates, con- contribute to the development and perpetuation of these advantages in the species, he cannot explain, but must assume the fact of a constant tendency to an infinitesimal variation of type, and a variation taking place equally in all open physiological directions. The Rev. James Martineau, in a remarkable paper which he has just republished* from the Contemporary Review for April, on "The Place of Mind in Nature, and Intuition in Man," has insisted with great subtlety on the same point, and argues from it that the progress which can be explained by the Darwinian principle is a progress which, so far from dispensing with "Mind in Nature," really presupposes it, since we could not conceive this selective principle acting successfully at all without a pre- viously prepared field of action. Moreover, he points out that Mr. Darwin assumes more than a constantly prepared field of physio- logical alternatives, since no advantage of animal organisation could be utilized by those creatures possessing it without the vital impulse of those animal instincts and desires which spar on the creature possessing a long wing, or a sharp beak, or bright plumage, to make the best of these advantages in rivalry with its competitors. On this last point, Mr. Martineau seems to go perhaps a little beyond the facts, for—without referring to the vegetable world, which is probably only explicable by the animal world for which it is a preparation—there are very many advantages of which a creature reaps the benefit without any motive principle in itself to set them going. For instance, the Mantis Aridifolia, which by virtue of its close resemblance to the dry leaves and twigs of the tree whereon it lives, deludes the creatures on which it preys to come within its reach, and itself eludes the pursuit of its enemies by its disguise, does not gain its advantage by virtue of any active use of the curiously theatrical dress which enables it to pass itself off as a bit of "still life;" and it is in all probability quite guiltless of possessing any histrionic talent at all. So, too, the innocent snakes described by Mr. Wal- lace, which gain immunity from attack by the close resemblance of their brightly coloured rings to those of the most deadly snakes, and the white butterflies which gain a similar immunity by closely resembling a species which the birds that feed on butter- flies seem to find possessed of a very acrid and unpleasant flavour, all appear to profit by advantages which it needs absolutely no active desires or instincts in their possessors to turn to account. But to this Mr. Martineau might reply that these advantages tell only by virtue of the imperfect discrimination of the foiled creatures of prey whom the superficial resemblances deceive ; and that these advantages, therefore, in order to take effect, in order to be
* Published by Williaras and Norgate.
advantages, though they do not imply a rudimentary form of mind,—desire or instinct,— in the subjects of them, do imply a
rudimentary form of mind in the victims of the delusion. If there were no creatures to be deceived, none which kill off the less perfectly disguised prey before the more perfectly disguised prey, the disguise would be of no advantage, and would not lead, there- fore, to any development or perpetuation of its forms. That the disguise is a great relative stimulus to the numbers of the species so disguised, is due to the existence of creatures preying upon species of this kind, but liable to be deceived by the eye ; i.e., a rudimentary kind of mind, capable of perceiving and being deluded by superficial resemblances, is already assumed. as existing in this department of the universe, before the particular kind of ad- vantage could take effect. Mr. Martineau, therefore, may fairly say that whatever sort of organic advantages of animal life you deal with, the negative or the positive, the only condition on which they can be developed or perpetuated, is the previous existence of something of the nature of mind,—either active instinct and desire, in those possessing the advantage, or a rudimentary kind of discrimination in those creatures which are deceived and misled by it. In other words, the progressive evolution of more elaborate types of organi- sation by the agency of a "conflict for existence," is only con- ceivable in its higher phases when you have already secured foe the creatures which are to be instrumental in working out the modifications of type, a nature more or less possessed of mind and motive, a nature capable of effort, and of effort more or less discriminating.
Bat what are we to say of the tentative method itself as the instrument of creative purpose? Would it not seem very strange, not only to the old Paleyan school of natural theology, but almost to any school, to assert that the divine wisdom, instead of creating for each creature the organs and instincts best adapted to its state, and modifying them gradually so as to suit the gradually altering circumstances around them, had implanted in them a tendency to vary arbitrarily, equally for good and for ill, and also for neither good nor ill, and had trusted to results for extinguishing mischievous alterations (i.e., all alterations which, whether good or bad for other purposes, are, on the whole, bad for the ends of safety and nourishment), and perpetuating all alterations, in the same sense, and only in the same sense, beneficial ? Would not this be called a hand-to-mouth sort of system, one suiting much better the old idea of a demiargus not quite equal to his work, and groping his way in it, than a system implying perfect foresight, which knows the end from the beginning, and is perfectly aware in which direction he intends the victory to go, and what variations of type will come into existence only to be rejected and extinguished? Mr. Darwin tells us, for instance, that the muscles of the human foot were found on investigation not to be exactly alike in any two out of fifty bodies, that in thirty-six subjects there were no less than 295 muscular variations ; that not one of the thirty-six bodies was found wanting even in departures from the general standards laid down in ordinary text-books ; that one body had twenty-five clear abnormalities. And yet perhaps of all these varia- tions of function hardly one was useful in itself, or, at all events, so useful as to tend to perpetuation,—especially in man, in whom physical advantages are so subordinated to mental and moral advantages, that variations involving very great physical disadvan- tages may be perpetuated, if they happen to be accompanied by
more than compensatory advantages of another kind. Now does it
not seem like the tentative groping of a limited intelligence, thus to be continually engrafting on every type of organism variations which may be lost even though they be of the greatest value, in case they are combined with others that are prejudicial, and which may be perpetuated even though they be most undesirable, if they are combined with others that are advantageous,—and all for the sake of obtaining a certain number of organic modifications which an omniscient and omnipotent power could as easily have produced directly ? Can we imagine a more cumbrous apparatus than this ?
What should we say to the manufacturer who chose to have elastic moulds in order that the shapes resulting might be varied in a thousand different directions, and this only for the sake of discover- ing experimentally whether one happy and fascinating novelty of form could be hit upon amongst all the thousand candidates ?
Should we not certainly say that such a manufacturer was a
groper who could not foresee anything, and was compelled to indulge in a marvellously wasteful expenditure of means in order to attain but one or two good ends? How are we to interpret, then, the admitted existence of a similarly tentative method at the very heart of Creation?
We believe part of the answer to be that a " tentative " method, when spoken of in relation to human enterprises,—manufactures, for instance, in which the "failures" may be of no use to any- body except the persons who gained experience by making them, means a very different thing from what it means when applied to Creation, where the various 'failures,' the various species ' van- quished ' in the conflict for existence, stand for multitudes of creatures which have lived and enjoyed life in their way, and only succumbed to adverse influences somewhat sooner, and leaving fewer offspring behind them, than those other species which for a time were victorious, and afterwards, perhaps, in their turn also vanquished. As the whole fortune of a species turns on very slight variations of an infinite number of kinds, which operate for good or ill only after accumulating through very long periods, there is usually very little to choose between the living condition of the victors and the vanquished, and it becomes a mere self- deception to talk of the variations which, relatively speaking, only did not so far succeed as to perpetuate themselves, as if they were 'failures' in the human sense.
But a much more important part of the answer to the question we have suggested is this,—that the law of multiform but infinitesimal variation which we find to be at the very heart of organic life is, as far as we can see, positively essential to the gain and accumulation, first of animal, and then of human experience,—which last is, of course, a building reared upon the basis of the lower animal strata of experience. The love of variety which Mr. Darwin recognizes as so deeply implanted even in the lower animal types, and for which he finds so wonderful a provision in the physiological law of variation operating in the production of every individual form, is of the very essence of all growth of even animal character, of all discrimination, of all progress. Limited natures, nay, all finite natures, can grow only by learning to enter into natures sufficiently like theirs to be interpretable by their experience, and sufficiently unlike to afford them a subject for contrast, emulation, and competition. To know yourself, you must know what differs from yourself, and yet too great a difference is fatal,—is a separating chasm, as we see by the disappearance of the Red man before the white. The Duke of Argyll and Mr. Darwin had, not long ago, a little controversy as to whether variety were to be supposed an object esteemed by the Creator himself, and not simply one in- corporated in the plan of the universe for the sake of his creatures. We should be disposed to say, that whether or not we can conceive the divine energy manifested in finite forms without infinite variety, it is at all events quite certain that it is not simply because finite creatures like variety, that it is provided, —but rather that they are made to like the variety which is pro- vided, because without it there could be no progress at all. Varieties of organism which are not the winning varieties in the sense of being perpetuated, are still essential to that experience by which the winner wins. If there were not a beaten rival in the race, there would be no race, and if there were no race, even though the winning qualities were there, there' would be no educa- tion and development of those qualities. You cannot conceive the gradual growth of very limited faculties except through the presence of infinite variety, shaded off by infinitesimal shades, and the presence of the love of that variety. Variety is the law of organic reproduction, simply because variety is absolutely essen- tial to the growth of limited natures in knowledge and experience. The tentative varieties which are not perpetuated, are essential to the development of the tentative varieties which are.
The "tentative" method, which seems to he the divine method of Creation, is then, we believe, simply the systematic embodi- ment of a law absolutely necessary for the growth and education of such limited beings as are capable of progress. As Mr. Mar- tineau says, before competition can arise in any true sense, there must be not only a variety from which to choose, but "desire or instinct to lay hold of its possibilities." And we do not think this any the less true, because unquestionably competition in some sense does begin in the vegetable world,—wherever, for instance, one plant drives out another from any given habitat by robbing it of its necessary moisture and nutriment. That is, we should say, simply due to the anticipation in the lowest kind of organisms of the law on which the highest must subsequently be built up,—a preparation for the many vege- table functions of animal life. The real intention of the law of competition is, as Mr. Martineau observes, the edu- cation it affords to the instincts and desires which avail them- selves of the alternatives opened to them ; nor should we be able to gather the purpose of the rivalries of the lowest organ- isms in the world, did we not see the importance of the rivalry which goes on amongst the highest. The apparent tentativeness of the Creative forces is but a law of infinite, but at the same
time infinitesimal, variation, out of which limited natures learn to widen their experience,—learn to grow. But the educational use of this variation does not fully appear until you reach that field of active choice and competition to which variety is essential. In other words, you find the true explanation of the lowest facts of organic life in those higher natures which are reared, as it were, upon them, and without which the meaning of the lowest would be lost.
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