The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 5, November, 1863Various
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 5, November, 1863
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
'The present invariability of the world of organization is the
direct consequence of the physical equilibrium, and so it will
continue as long as the mean temperature, the annual supply of
light, the composition of the air, the distribution of water,
oceanic and atmospheric currents, and other such agencies, remain
unaltered; but if any one of these, or of a hundred other incidents
that might be mentioned, should suffer modification, in an instant
the fanciful doctrine of the immutability of species would be
brought to its true value. The organic world appears to be in
repose, because natural influences have reached an equilibrium. A
marble may remain forever motionless upon a level table; but let
the surface be a little inclined, and the marble will quickly run
off. What should we say of him who, contemplating it in its state
of rest, asserted that it was impossible for it ever to move?
'When, therefore, we notice such orderly successions, we must not
at once assign them to a direct intervention, the issue of wise
predeterminations of a voluntary agent; we must first satisfy
ourselves how far they are dependent upon mundane or material
conditions, occurring in a definite and necessary series, ever
bearing in mind the important principle that an orderly sequence of
inorganic events necessarily involves an orderly and corresponding
progression of organic life.
'To this doctrine of the control of physical agencies over organic
forms I acknowledge no exceptions, not even in the case of man. The
varied aspects he presents in different countries are the necessary
consequences of those influences.'
Whether we advocate the doctrine of the origination of the human race
from a single pair, or from different races at different centres, we
are, in Dr. Draper's judgment, alike driven to the conclusion of the
transitory nature of typical forms, to their transmutations and
extinctions. In the former case, we can only account for diverse races,
having different shades of complexion, different varieties of skull,
etc., by the admission of the paramount control of physical agents, such
as climate and other purely material circumstances; in the latter, we
can only account for the varieties visible among the different races
themselves on similar grounds.
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