Evolution; Knowledge, Theory of; Philosophy and religion
Hence the need for another word. Our purpose here is to analyze the
various class of changes usually considered as Progress, together with
others like them which are not so considered; and to see what is their
intrinsic peculiarity—what is their essential nature apart from their
bearings on our welfare. And that we may avoid the confusion of thought
likely to result from pre-established associations, it will be best to
substitute for the term Progress, the term Evolution. Our question is
then—what is Evolution?
* * * * *
§ 43. In respect to that evolution which individual organisms display,
this question has been answered. Pursuing an idea which Harvey set
afloat, Wolff, Goethe, and Von Baer, have established the truth that the
series of changes gone through during the development of a seed into a
tree, or an ovum into an animal, constitute an advance from homogeneity
of structure to heterogeneity of structure. In its primary stage, every
germ consists of a substance that is uniform throughout, both in texture
and chemical composition. The first step is the appearance of a
difference between two parts of this substance; or, as the phenomenon is
called in physiological language, a differentiation. Each of these
differentiated divisions presently begins itself to exhibit some
contrast of parts; and by and by these secondary differentiations become
as definite as the original one. This process is continuously
repeated—is simultaneously going on in all parts of the growing embryo;
and by endless such differentiations there is finally produced that
complex combination of tissues and organs, constituting the adult animal
or plant. This is the history of all organisms whatever. It is settled
beyond dispute that organic evolution consists in a change from the
homogeneous to the heterogeneous.
Now I propose in the first place to show, that this law of organic
evolution is the law of all evolution. Whether it be in the development
of the Earth, in the development of Life upon its surface, in the
development of Society, of Government, of Manufactures, of Commerce, of
Language, Literature, Science, Art, this same advance from the simple to
the complex, through successive differentiations, holds uniformly. From
the earliest traceable cosmical changes down to the latest results of
civilization, we shall find that the transformation of the homogeneous
into the heterogeneous, is that in which Evolution essentially consists.
* * * * *
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