Whether an advance from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous
is or is not displayed in the biological history of the globe, it is clearly
enough displayed in the progress of the latest and most heterogeneous creature
--Man. It is alike true that, during the period in which the Earth has
been peopled, the human organism has grown more heterogeneous among the
civilised divisions of the species; and that the species, as a whole, has
been growing more heterogeneous in virtue of the multiplication of races
and the differentiation of these races from each other.
In proof of the first of these positions, we may
cite the fact that, in the relative development of the limbs, the civilised
man departs more widely from the general type of the placental mammalia
than do the lower human races. While often possessing well-developed body
and arms, the Papuan has extremely small legs: thus reminding us of the
quadrumana, in which there is no great contrast in size between the hind
and fore limbs. But in the European, the greater length and massiveness
of the legs has become very marked--the fore and hind limbs are relatively
more heterogeneous. Again, the greater ratio which the cranial bones bear
to the facial bones illustrates the same truth. Among the vertebrata in
general, progress is marked by an increasing heterogeneity in the vertebral
column, and more especially in the vertebrae constituting the skull: the
higher forms being distinguished by the relatively larger size of the bones
which cover the brain, and the relatively smaller size of those which form
the jaw, etc. Now, this characteristic, which is stronger in Man than in
any other creature, is stronger in the European than in the savage. Moreover,
judging from the greater extent and variety of faculty he exhibits, we
may infer that the civilised man has also a more complex or heterogeneous
nervous system than the uncivilised man: and indeed the fact is in part
visible in the increased ratio which his cerebrum bears to the subjacent
ganglia.
If further elucidation be needed, we may find it
in every nursery. The infant European has sundry marked points of resemblance
to the lower human races; as in the flatness of the alae of the nose, the
depression of its bridge, the divergence and forward opening of the nostrils,
the form of the lips, the absence of a frontal sinus, the width between
the eyes, the smallness of the legs. Now, as the development process by
which these traits are turned into those of the adult European, is a continuation
of that change from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous displayed during
the previous evolution of the embryo, which every physiologist will admit;
it follows that the parallel developmental process by which the like traits
of the barbarous races have been turned into those of the civilised races,
has also been a continuation of the change from the homogeneous to the
heterogeneous. The truth of the second position -- that Mankind, as a whole,
have become more heterogeneous -- is so obvious as scarcely to need illustration.
Every work on Ethnology, by its divisions and subdivisions of races, bears
testimony to it. Even were we to admit the hypothesis that Mankind originated
from several separate stocks, it would still remain true, that as, from
each of these stocks, there have sprung many now widely different tribes,
which are proved by philological evidence to have had a common origin,
the race as a whole is far less homogeneous than it once was....
On passing from Humanity under its individual form,
to Humanity as socially embodied, we find the general law still more variously
exemplified. The change from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous is displayed
equally in the progress of civilisation as a whole, and in the progress
of every tribe or nation; and is still going on with increasing rapidity.
As we see in existing barbarous tribes, society in its first and lowest
form is a homogeneous aggregation of individuals having like powers and
like functions: the only marked difference of function being that which
accompanies difference of sex. Every man is warrior, hunter, fisherman,
tool-maker, builder; every woman performs the same drudgeries; every family
is self-sufficing, and save for purposes of aggression and defence, might
as well live apart from the rest. Very early, however, in the process of
social
evolution, we find an incipient differentiation between the
governing
and the governed. Some kind of chieftainship seems coeval with the first
advance from the state of separate wandering families to that of a nomadic
tribe. The authority of the strongest makes itself felt among a body of
savages as in a herd of animals, or a posse of schoolboys. At first, however,
it is indefinite, uncertain; is shared by others of scarcely inferior power;
and is unaccompanied by any difference in occupation or style of living:
the first ruler kills his own game, makes his own weapons, builds his own
hut, and economically considered, does not differ from others of his tribe.
Gradually, as the tribe progresses, the contrast between the governing
and the governed grows more decided. Supreme power becomes hereditary in
one family; the head of that family, ceasing to provide for his own wants,
is served by others; and he begins to assume the sole office of ruling.
At the same time there has been arising a co-ordinate
species of government -- that of Religion. As all ancient records
and traditions prove, the earliest rulers are regarded as divine personages.
The maxims and commands they uttered during their lives are held sacred
after their deaths, and are enforced by divinely-descended successors;
who in their turns are promoted to the pantheon of the race, there to be
worshipped and propitiated along with their predecessors: the most ancient
of whom is the supreme god, and the rest subordinate gods. For a long time
these connate forms of government --civil and religious-- continue closely
associated. For many generations the king continues to be the chief priest,
and the priesthood to be members of the royal race. For many ages religious
law continues to contain more or less of civil regulation, and civil law
to possess more or less of religious sanction; and even among the most
advanced nations these two controlling agencies are by no means completely
differentiated from each other....
...Or we might trace out the evolution of Science;
beginning with the era in which it was not yet differentiated from Art,
and was, in union with Art, the handmaid of Religion; passing through the
era in which the sciences were so few and rudimentary, as to be simultaneously
cultivated by the same philosophers; and ending with the era in which the
genera and species are so numerous that few can enumerate them, and no
one can adequately grasp even one genus. Or we might do the like with Architecture,
with the Drama, with Dress.
But doubtless the reader is already weary of illustrations;
and our promise has been amply fullfiled. We believe we have shown beyond
question, that that which the German physiologists have found to be the
law of organic development, is the law of all development. The advance
from the simple to the complex, through a process of successive differentiations,
is seen alike in the earliest changes of the Universe to which we can reason
our way back; and in the earliest changes which we can inductively establish;
it is seen in the geologic and climatic evolution of the Earth, and of
every single organism on its surface; it is seen in the evolution of Humanity,
whether contemplated in the civilised individual, or in the aggregation
of races; it is seen in the evolution of Society in respect alike of its
political, its religious, and its economical organisation; and it is seen
in the evolution of all those endless concrete and abstract products of
human activity which constitute the environment of our daily life. From
the remotest past which Science can fathom, up to the novelties of yesterday,
that in which Progress essentially consists, is the transformation of the
homogeneous into the heterogeneous.
And now, from this uniformity of procedure, may we
not infer some fundamental necessity whence it results? May we not rationally
seek for some all-pervading principle which determines this all-pervading
process of things? Does not the universality of the law imply a universal
cause?...
...The only obvious respect in which all kinds of
Progress are alike, is, that they are modes of change; and hence, in some
characteristic of changes in general, the desired solution will probably
be found. We may suspect a priori that in some law of change lies the explanation
of this universal transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous.
Thus much premised, we pass at once to the statement of the law, which
is this: Every active force produces more than one change -- every cause
produces more than one effect.
Before this law can be duly comprehended, a few
examples must be looked at. When one body is struck against another, that
which we usually regard as the effect, is a change of position or motion
in one or both bodies. But a moment's thought shows us that this is a careless
and very incomplete view of the matter.... No case can be named in which
an active force does not evolve forces of several kinds, and each of these,
other groups of forces. Universally the effect is more complex than the
cause.
Doubtless the reader already foresees the course
of our argument. This multiplication of results, which is displayed in
every event of today, has been going on from the beginning; and is true
of the grandest phenomena of the universe as of the most insignificant.
From the law that every active force produces more than one change, it
is an inevitable corollary that through all time there has been an ever-growing
complication of things. Starting with the ultimate fact that every cause
produces more than one effect, we may readily see that throughout creation
there must have gone on, and must still go on, a neverceasing transformation
of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous. But let us trace out this truth
in detail....
Observe, now, however, a further consequence. There
must arise not simply a tendency towards the differentiation of each race
of organisms into several races; but also a tendency to the occasional
production of a somewhat higher organism. Taken in the mass, these
divergent
varieties which have been caused by fresh physical conditions and habits
of life, will exhibit changes quite indefinite in kind and degree;
and changes that do not necessarily constitute an advance. Probably in
most cases the modified type will be neither more nor less heterogeneous
than the original one. In some cases the habits of life adopted being simpler
than before, a less heterogeneous structure will result: there will be
a retrogradation. But it must now and then occur, that some division of
a species, falling into circumstances which give it rather more complex
experiences, and demand actions somewhat more involved, will have certain
of its organs further differentiated in proportionately small degrees,--will
become slightly more heterogeneous.
Thus, in the natural course of things, there will
from time to time arise an increased heterogeneity both of the Earth's
flora and fauna, and of individual races included in them. Omitting detailed
explanations, and allowing for the qualifications which cannot here be
specified, we think it is clear that geological mutations have all along
tended to complicate the forms of life, whether regarded separately or
collectively. The same causes which have led to the evolution of the Earth's
crust from the simple into the complex, have simultaneously led to a parallel
evolution of the Life upon its surface. In this case, as in previous ones,
we see that the transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous
is consequent upon the universal principle, that every active force produces
more than one change.
If the advance of Man towards greater heterogeneity
is traceable to the production of many effects by one cause, still more
clearly may the advance of Society towards greater heterogeneity be so
explained....
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