JUST BEGINNING

Evening Star, Issue 18623, 2 May 1924, Page 10

JUST BEGINNING

KAN’S SLOW CLIMB. A COSMIC HISTORY. [By Sir Oliver Lodge.] Of ultimate origins science knows nothing. Its methods enable it to infer with more or less accuracy what will lie from what is. and with somewhat greater confidence to gather information about the past from the present, inferring from what was, at any given epoch, something of what went on before it. But, however far we thus go hack, there is_ always and inevitably a time before that, just as there is always a future beyond our utmost mental "horizon.

Here and now wo find man in an incipiently civilised state, living with,other animals on a certain planet, which we Jjnow is revolving around one of the stars and receiving thence sufficient heat and energy to keep it habitable. But how man arrived is only partially known, and how the planet arose is known still less. Some have thought that it is one of. the fragmentary portions of a vast original rotating cloud, of which the sun remains as the largest concentrated and most active portion. Others there are, also of groat authority, who surmise that a catastrophe encounter with another star tore a fragment out of the sun and scattered it abroad to make the planets. That the moon was once budded off the earth is almost certain, but how the_ earth arose wo have still to ascertain. What wo can definitely say is that it once was hot, and unable to sustain life in any of the forms that wo know of; and that somehow or other, in a manner at present unknown, life appeared—a mysterious entity with apparently the potentiality of slow and infinite development. But the very material of the earth has to be accounted for, if we really seek for origin. We may picture to ourselves electrons combining into atoms, and atoms unihng with each other into the molecules of the ordinary chemical substances we know. Wo may even go further back, and speculate on the formation of electrons out of ether; but wc should be getting out of our depth, and still there would he no absolute beginning. Gaps in our knowledge are frequent at present, but in time they may fill up. There seems no limit to the probing power of man's mind'. Meanwhile there is a recognised cap in his knowledge between the formation of a complex organic molecule and its habitation by actual life. It is as if the compounded' atoms had made so intricate a pattern, had formed so elaborate a .structure, that it afforded opportunity for the habitation of something new and surprising. Life—whatever life may be—was able to lake hold and utilise the structure provided, utilise it for its own further development, as when a heap of stones or rubbish by the roadside is made use of by floating germs and clothes itself in verdure.

So it may be that life, always awaiting its opportunity, seized hold of the more complex molecules on the planet and began to enter into its kingdom. It was a momentous epoch. Thereafter the laws of physics and chemistry were still absolutely obeyed, but no longer wore t hey the sole laws; no longer were they sufficient. The supplementary laws of biology began to reign. The vitalised molecules were no longer beaten about by every random force; they began in some dim way to control thosjo forces, to form themselves into cells or communities, to accept one particle and to reject another, to grow towards or away from the light, as if they felt itj and, most remarkable of all, to subdivide,, to split into two or into segments, and begin the work of reproduction or indefinite growth. Xor did the early stages of development stop here. Some of the cells broke away from the community, and began to move about on their own account. And when an amoeba cell began to protrude a portion of itself and drag 1 the rest after the advancing portion, spontaneous locomotion was begun, and the infinite development of animal life foreshadowed. Xn longer was food passively received or rejected; it could be hunted for. And in tiie adventure of the chase dangers were encountered, which before long required a sense of pain Tor protection. Other senses, too, became desirable for pursuit of prey and escape from danger.

All these things arrived. Pensitivo spots and feelers began to make life more efficient, and presently the organism began to enter into relation with its surroundings, not only on the material side by direct contact, but on the ethereal side also. Some one or more of the sensitive spots began to be sensitive to ether vibrations, and organisms possessing sensitive spots such as these were able to feel far ahead, to realise things beyond reach, to sense desirable objects and move towards them, to sense lurking dangers and avoid them. The power of vision was in its infancy. But the incipient eye, if exposed, was too sensitive to merely mechanical stimulus; it had to be sunk to the bottom of a hollow and protected, and was ultimately provided with a lens to make its vision clearer.

All these things happened; in some sense, we might say, miraculously happened. For it is marvellous how low down in the sea l © of existence something that can be called “an eye” appears—an organ, not even yet completely understood, whereby the organism entered into relation with the ether of space and made use of its vibrations. Vibrations in the air also might be utilised. And hence a new sense organ was evolved of a more mechanical and quite different kind from the eye . , . the rudiment of what we call “ the interna! ear.” And now the creature was equipped for free and easy life in its aqueous environment, and there it lived for ages, until it began to k get overcrowded and some enterprising species began to crawl _out on to the moist land, gradually changing the instruments it had for extracting oxyeen from water for those which were more suitable for dealing with sir. In early life it would still live in water, hut the adult would be more at home on land.

How this amphibious creature developed into the mammal, and how those early mammals grow gradually more vigorous and splendid, is a long story, of which the magnificent science of biology is able to teach U 6 the main chapters. It was a slow process, involving millions of years; but it occurred, and its products are plain before our eyes. We are now_ in a more familiar region, and the prodigious amount there is to learn about it is obvious. Life from its lowly beginnings has blossomed into fierce and violent, but also beneficent, activity. The relentless struggle for existence is mitigated by mother love and by the sacrifice individuals for the general good. Individuals are not isolated and purely selfish. They care for and protect thoir young, and they form communities for mutual help and safety. Species dif fer in this respect; there is immense variety; but already we can syrnpatho tically see, among familiar manifestations of lire, the rudiments, the lowly rudi niente, of mind, forethought, memory, volition, and affection. A doubt may be felt as to whether it is fair to attribute anything akin to incipient volition to organisms low down in the scale, like insects; it has been customary to regard the lower animals mainly as automata, stimulated wholly by external motives. But whatever may be true of work, play must be allowed to have an element of spontaneity; and any one who has sympathetically watched a group of flies playing “ tick ” round a ceiling pendant can hardly doubt that they are watching play as spontaneous as that of kittens. It feels absurd to suppose that their orbits are capable of prediction, on a basis of mechanical force alone, by a superhuman calculator with the powers speculatively attributed to him by Laplace. It is not that they are too intricate alone; an element of contingency and indeterminateness has already introduced itself into the scheme. In a general way, actions can be predicted from known character, even at the human level, but not infallibly and completely and in full detail. If a theologian claims —no doubt rightly—that true and absolute free will can only be predicated of Deity, then I suggest that the facts indicate a nascent germ of something distinctly akin to Deity even in lowly forms of life, and that this nascent germ is per-

ceptible to us when, by reason of Its association with we can apprehend life’s intrinsic behaviour. Out of the marvellous pabulum, this interaction between the vital aud the physical, in the light of what has gone on before through so many ages, wo may reasonably expect almost anything to arise. The stages that have been already reached would have seemed quite incredible at an earlier stage. Who, looking at a yeast globule or an amoeba, when they were the highest forms of life, could have imagined the oak, the eagle, and the lion ? And who, looking now at our present stage of human development, can form any conception of what it may ultimately become '! Wc do not know, wa cannot tell; we can only foresee a very little way; but wc cannot believe that this is the end. Surely it is only the beginning! Man is a recent comer to the planet; he is in the early morning of his time. Every achievement leads to something more. Every advance makes further advance possible. . ,

So it was in the stage at which we have arrived in this discussion. Some of the creatures began to develop an extensive nervous system, making tnem keener of hearing, clearer of vision, more sensitive to pain and pleasure, aud more quickly responsive in muscle. They began to hold themselves erect and look around them. Their eyes came to the front, where they were most wanted, giving them the great advantage of _ binocular vision, a sense of solidity or third dimension even at a distance. Their ears only remained at the side, where they would be most useful; the screening obstruction of the head enables binaural audition. And the nervous system went on developing and localising itself until the rudiments of perception and memory and planning and forethought, which had already existed in incipient traces, began to be formidable and controlling; until the creature became capable of self-deter-mination and had something of a mind which lie could make up and act upon. The gradual growth from mere creature comfort* working through long periods of development up to a higher potentiality is thus depicted by F. W. H. Myers in his poem called " A Cosmio History ’ _ (fragments of prose and poetry), in which he vapidly traces the evolution of living creatures from the dust of the earth, aud then the mysterious incoming of mind. And first a glimmering case they had, And creatures bound in dream benign, Obscurely sentient, blindly glad, Felt the dim lust of shower and shine ; Then works the unresting Bower, and lo! In subtler chain those germs combine, Thro’ age-long struggle shaping slow This trembling Self, this Soul of thine. Hardly man as yet, but a creature potentially hiimali, came now within the range of actuality. .Still, however, would be be ruled mainly by his impulses. Beal fore thought anil action for the future could only "come gradually. Yet in the important' matter of feeding it came at a fairly early stage. .Hunger was a forethought motive. Jt led to the accumulation of stores for the future; slight, as when a dog buries a Lone; extensive, as when a bee fills its hive with honey. Later on, much later perhaps, the growth of the brain enabled the limbs to be supplemented by weapons and tools. Home thing beyond mere subsistence began to attract, attention. Lite became easier. Some sense of beauty and interest was developed. And the rudiments of art legan. Long before anything akin to science could be thought of the feeling for artistic representation and some sense of beauty took root in a few of our earlier ancestors —the peaks of the race at that dim and distant period I —aud their surviving works of art, preserved in caves, are still capable of exciting admiration. It was not the average, hut- the leaders, of tlie race who wrought those notable w presentations of co-cxistent animals—a sign of some little leisure and joy in existence.

Xext apparently came a sense of the mystery and wonder of existence, and the realisation that there must be some power higher than anything that appealed to the senses; something of which they were afraid, and felt that they must sacrifice to, in (lie hope that they might, be helped and not overwhelmed by the alarming forces around them, whether those, of earthquake and tempest or the more insidious ravages of disease. This .strictly human stage of development, the effort of primitive man toward higher things, the beginnings of aspiration and prayer, and hope and longing for ;i higher state of being, and the cry fur help from he knew not what—all this has been depicted in literature; we ki.bw too little about it to describe it scientifically, the language of poetry is best : Through such tierce hours thy brute forefather won Thy mounting hope, the adventure of the sun.

With hopes half born, with burning tears unshed, Jiowed low liis terrible and finely head ; With arms uncouth, with knees that scarce could kneel, Upraised ins speechless ultimate appeal; Ay, and heaven heard, and was with him, and gave The gift that made him master and not slave.

And some strange light, past knowing, past control, Lose in his eyes and shone, and was a soul. iF. W. 11. Myers. And then, either along with or soon after these glimmerings of religious sense, there must have come to sonm genius of the race a consciousness of self-control, a feeling that his actions wore not dictated purely by outer circumstances; that lie bad a character, a motive power within, something in his own nature which enabled him to respond to some stimuli and reject others; something in the moral universe akin to the selective action which an eariv organism had exercised in the choice of food, what may be called a knowledge of good and evil, a realisation of the power of choice, a sense of free will, a feeling that he was not altogether coerced, that ho could look around and decide on his own course, that he could choose the good and eschew the evil—in fact, the growth of a conscience, which ho could obey or disobey.

When this sense of moral value was achieved something new entered] into the scheme. Hitherto animal life had blossomed into sensation and incipient thought. Now a further stage was begun—only begun—merely an arnceba-liko mind putting out its processes in one direction or .another, yet really though half blindly deciding on its path. Tims there arose a selfevolved motive power which, as it grew, might liavo infinite consequences. The creature that had risen from the animals had definitely now ascended. Well might lie be called" “ the first man.” He kept all the traces of his animal ancestry; they were the most conspicuous thing about him ; hut in the innermost part of liis being there glimmered a nascent soul, a spark of incipient Deity. And he may well have heard a voice whispering to him, as a sort of temptation: ” Ye shall bo gods.” How the riso in the scale of existence is depicted in early literature, and how man succumbed to the temptation which now took a more definite form, are known to all. He had not known temptation or sin before; ho had obeyed bis nature thoughtlessly, with no feeling of responsibility, with no senso of shame or disobedience to what be felt to bo right. The skulking home of a disobedient dog is derived from the dog’s human companionship, and it is a sign and symbol of the shamed feelings of the first man awaiting punishment for his fall below the standard, at which bo bad now consciously arrived. But the fact that a creature could thus feel shame, could thus be conscious of disobedience to some higher power, is clear evidence of a rise in the scale of existence. The upward step was unmistakable; mankind tripped over it and fell, but not irremediably. Man was now higher than the animals; he had acquired an infinitely developable soul, a responsible consciousness, an inarticulate longing after a higher life. At his beso ho was groping after something- higher than himself, feeling after

God if haply lie might find Him; and we are in much the same condition now. Wo are still in early uayi ; wo understand the Deity very little, though it is tree that we have, been profoundly helped. All that is necessary fur development, lias been riven us; but the. human will is slow to learn, and it cannot be hurried. Acceptance of our privileges must rest with ourselves. The universe lias been infinitely patient in producing ns, in allowing time lor our free, nncompelled ascent ; and patient it will continue still, while wo blunder and obstruct and oppose all the agencies that are working for our good. Some there are who return and wallotv in their ancestral mud, wdiile others think it safe to cower in their artificially-hard-ened cases, as in a protective shell. “The shell must break before the bird can fly.”

But while the nnemancipalcd creature is thus cabined, cribbed, confined, what struggles ami despairs are ids! The poor melodious wretch moans his weakness, repines his straitened lot, and sometimes craves the boon of extinction. Ay. birth is no easy matter, whether it be physical or mental” or spiritual birth ; pangs accompany it, and danger; it is as serious and severe ns death. Yet if we knew all, both are full of hope; and all the longcontinued trouble and effort in onr present fleshy habitation—so painful to put on, so grievous to discard—shall be but the prelude to something which our faith must assure us was otlierwi.se unattainable.— New York ‘Times.’