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order that he might give his scanty portion of water to Nanna, burning with fever. When Nanna was again fit to raise his head from his bed, and the pitiless overlooker of the slaves began to compel him to work by the whip, then Vipasa undertook hard work for his companion as much as possible. Love gave to his body, exhausted with care and hunger, strength and perseverance in such a degree as is rarely found among the strongest and most healthy people. This power of a, to him, incomprehensible spirit, the young champion of Islamism could not withstand. "How couldst thou," said he one day to his fellow-labourer, "do all this to thine enemy, to a man who from a bad disposition has done thee nothing but harm; to a slave, who can never repay to thee, his fellow-slave, one draught of the water thou hast given to him ?"

"The Christian faith," answered Vipasa, "has instructed me to act thus: and this faith has supplied me with strength to bear anything, and to do anything, for thee; for it has implanted in my heart a love of thee stronger than thy hatred !"

Nanna was silent, and a tear stood in his once proudly glancing eye. Then he said-" Deceivest thou not thyself, and me, when thou ascribest to Christianity what proceeds from thine own good heart?

The doctrines and practices of the Christians have always been described to me as very different from those which thou settest forth!"

Vipasa suffered not the opportunity to pass by: he found the ears of his companion open, his heart ready to receive what he would impart. There was the same consciousness of the power of God declared in Christianity, which Vipasa had himself experienced some months since, through the conversation and instruction of a Syrian Christian, who lived in a valley in his neighbourhood. The seed which Christ had once sown in his heart, inwardly longing after truth, had, in the heat of affliction, through which

he

was passing, stricken root, and unfolded itself. He had now experienced its power in himself.

Nanna seemed for some time lost
VOL. I.-51

in thought, then he asked—“ Art thou yet baptised unto Christ ?"

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"I am not yet," answered Vipasa. Well," pursued Nanna-" seest thou not the hand of Providence, which obliges thee in chains, as well as myself, to go to Mecca, in order that thou mightest be torn from error, and be led into the pure faith of Islamism? There behold the miracles performed at the tomb of the Prophet, and thy heart will be melted. To thee, as well as to me, the profession of Islamism may procure an alleviation, if not freedom from the chains of slavery !"

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"The same hand, on whose power thou restest," said Vipasa, can lead us to another boundary than to Mecca, and can also deliver us by other means than the profession of Mahomedanism. In this do I trust; upon the help of this hand do I rely then let it deal with us as it will; I have learned to be patient, and I fear not death.”

The love of the young Christian had excited love; it had changed a bitter enemy to an intimate friend. The two companions in slavery lived in sincere and brotherly union; also, Nanna found his hard lot easier and lighter.

The bark was greatly delayed, by calins and contrary winds; but at last it entered the Red Sea, the wind was favourable, and in a few days that part of the coast nearest to Mecca would be reached. "Acknowledgest thou not," said Nanna, one evening," the mighty help of the Prophet, which conducts us so friendlily to the place of his grave ?” Vipasa was silent, his quiet hope and confidence had not forsaken him.

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And this confidence was not destined to be in vain when almost arrived at the place of destination, the ship suffered a misfortune very common in this sea. A powerful wind from the south threw it out of its course: it ran at first, to avoid the impending danger, along the Egyptian coast; at last, when it had again entered the sea, it was cast upon the rocky shore in the neighbourhood of Sinai, and suffered shipwreck. The slaves had been previously unchained from their benches, in order that every one, who could, should escape by swimming. The two Indians were released from the vessel, but not from the chain which fastened

them to each other. Nanna had had very little practice in swimming, and soon began to sink. Then Vipasa, who was an excellent swimmer, from having been born among mountains and lakes, and long accustomed to sports on land and in water, seized hold of him, and brought his precious burden to the shore in safety. There both remained for long in an unconscious state, until a monk, who dwelt in the Garden of Palms, upon the Hill of Moses, perceived them, and came to their assistance.

When Nanna opened his eyes, he saw, by a crucifix placed opposite to his bed, that he was in the dwelling of a Christian, and cried-" God has led me by the love of a true friend to Christ, not to the Tomb of the Prophet! My unbelief has vanished; I confess, with thee, my Vipasa, that the Lord is Love, the Deliverer and Saviour from death!" In a few weeks, the two Indians received baptism in the convent on Mount Sinai. They could not separate themselves from this holy place. They had learnt to know a higher kingdom than the uncertain dominions of their fathers into this they had entered, in this they persevered.

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They inhabited a small cave in the rocky side of Horeb, and lived a life of prayer. The times of trouble and tumult were gone by; they had found peace such as the world can neither give nor take away. Both reached a good old age. Upon the same morning Vipasa gently feel asleep, and in the evening of the same day Nanna also died. The bodies which had contained their glorified souls were laid in one grave.

S.

TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES.

WE have had occasion to observe, in following the various magazines imported from England, that considerable agitation has been lately caused in scientific circles there, by discussions regarding what is popularly known as Mr. Charles Darwin's Theory of the Origin of Species. Scarcely a periodical of repute has appeared but it contained an article written ostensibly to familiarise the reader with the current topic; but which, however, in many

cases only exhibited a sectarian view of it. In almost every instance, the papers pre-supposed that the reader possessed an advanced knowledge of physiology, which treats of the laws of nature; and thus, with Mr. Darwin's book for a text, the writer of each article dashed headlong in medias res—right into the middle of his subject. This proceeding would of course entirely satisfy a well read man; whereas he who is only on the first steps of the excelsior ladder of education would puzzle his mind to little purpose over the very same paper. It is the old difficulty of being unable to suit both parties!

The last paper on the subject which we read, is the clever réchauffage in Macmillan's Magazine. Now, although that article was avowedly a repetition, in the writer's own words, of opinions and statements which other people had already advanced, yet we did not churlishly think that circumstance as having by any means detracted anything from its real worth; but rather felt thankful for the attempt to bring within the grasp of our own understanding a topic which is fraught with questions concerning subtle and mysterious operations of nature.

We however think that the essay alluded to, admirably plain as it is, has still several references in it which are not readily understood by many persons. We were only able to enjoy it thoroughly by dove-tailing information gathered from contemporaneous sources. In order to provoke inquiry into the books which treat on a subject which otherwise may never reach the ears of some of our readers, as well as to start them with sufficient knowledge of it to facilitate the inquiry, we shall venture to repeat in this paper an outline of the chief points of Mr. Darwin's theories, in a manner which would reflect the impression they made on our own mind.

To begin at the foundation, it is necessary to observe that all things on this globe are separated into two great Classes, called the ORGANIC and INORGANIC. The former includes all bodies which possess life, as animals and plants; and the latter all bodies which have not either life or sensibility. The reader could not see or think of anything around him, which could not be classed under

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either one or the other of these heads.
Taking up the ORGANIC division, and se-
lecting Animals, we find that, after inde-
scribable toil, the countless varieties of
beings, both living and dead, represent-
ed by that head, have all been arranged in
groups so accurately, that in looking at
any animal, or even a dried-up bone of
it, a naturalist will tell you without diffi-
culty to which group it belongs. Cuvier
divided the animal kingdom into, first,
Divisions-next, Classes-and lastly,
Orders. To these have been subse-
quently added the following ramifica-
tions: Families,- Genus-Species –
and Varieties. The regulating princi-
ple which guided the grouping of ani-
mals under so many distinctive heads
was their resemblance to one another.
The animals that possessed a common
resemblance among the whole of them
came into the first great division; those
which departed from the rest in any
particular point of resemblance, but
still had among themselves some gene-
lar similitude, came into the next class;
of these, such again as departed in
resemblance came into a lower order;
and so
on, until the circle became
obviously narrowed at Species. And
in reflecting upon the extensive fami-
ly of organised nature, we should bear
in mind that there can thus only be
comparatively few species, each stand-
ing by itself at the head of distributed
varieties thereof.

species, except as a particular group of animals not exactly resembling any other group; the other portion asserts that species is "a collection of all the individuals which resemble each other more than anything else—which can by mutual fecundation produce fertile individuals." This definition is by DeCandolle: There is something in it which palpably gives an individuality to Species, not possessed by the other classifications, for the definition implies that animals are not of one species if their offsprings are in all cases barren. Mr. Darwin accepts this doctrine. And moreover, it suggests a very reliable method of testing the distinction of species between any two living animals. Should all their offsprings be barren or not reproductive, the undoubted conclusion is that the parents are of different species, how much soever they may resemble each other in anatomical structure. For a familiar example, we have the Horse and the Ass, whose anatomy is so nearly alike, that it is said if found as fossils, they would infallibly have been classed by our paleontologists as animals of one species! But it is an ascertained fact that the mule, which is a hybrid of the horse and ass, is barren, and consequently its parents are of totally distinct species from each other. This is the triumph of the physiological test. There is another way of distinguishing species,namely by anatomical resemblance; but it is not considered to be very reliable. We have on record instances when the greatest scientific penetration had been deceived by this rule, and classed as of one species those animals which, upon experiment, failed in the physiological test-or plainly, whose offsprings were quite fertile. For instance, the Hare and the Rabbit are both classed from their structure as animals of distinct species. An eminent naturalist, Mr. Lewes, positively asserts that they are

As the distinction among animals is barely a question of resemblance, which must perpetually vary in life, there would at first sight appear to be no necessity to fix upon any variety of animals, and ask if that variety can possibly change in course of time, or be for ever fixed in the form that we see it, or in that in which it was originally created? This is the real question at issue, only substituting the word species for variety; and it certainly would be a useless question if Species, like the rest, was but a mere abstraction, an And yet the offsprings of the hare arbitrary section of animals classified and rabbit have been found to be reaccording to the degree of resemblance productive to the thirteenth generation, they bear to one another. Cuvier and the last remain vigorous! The has said that "Species was not an experiments with them were made by abstraction." Mr. Darwin now under- Mons. Rouy of Angoulême, himself postakes to prove the same thing. The sessing considerable scientific attainscientific world is divided: one portionments. He thought hereupon, and maintains that there is no such thing as so does Mr. Lewes think, that it is a

So.

popular delusion that hybrids are sterile but they have not accounted for the sterility of the mule. We observe by this uncertainty the weakness of the anatomical criterion. Nevertheless, we must be content to accept the classification made upon peculiarities in anatomy only, or be forced to renounce our faith in the classification of extinct animals whose fossil remains only we possess, as well as of other existing living things whose habits are unknown; and with it we must forfeit all the arguments based upon such classification.

It is scarcely needful to say, that if we accept the theory that hybrids are reproductive, there is an end to all question of the origin of species. We have the "open sesame" to the mystery at once; because, as M. Rouy's Leporides (as he calls the hybrids of the hare and rabbit) cannot be either one thing or the other, they must necessarily be of an altogether new species, originated by a very simple exertion of the ingenuity of man. Their offsprings would perpetuate the new species, and Mr. Darwin upon this might have saved himself the trouble of putting forward a novel doctrine, which has apparently set the philosophers of Europe by the ears.

Those who have admitted, that as reproductive powers absolutely end in the first generation proceeding from any two different species, we have no ability whatever to introduce in the world a new species beyond that generation, have not, to our knowledge, undertaken to account definitely for the manner in which different species have been introduced in the world. The popular idea hitherto was, that each species, standing by itself, has been originally created by the will of God, quite independent of the agency of anything already created. In fact, that the same Will that gave life to Adam, is or has been repeated every time that a new species was made. This view of the case obviously makes the origin of species in the world to be a miracle, and, as such, beyond human ability to explain. When we subscribe to this view, we involuntarily admit our entire ignorance of the matter, and rest our faith on Genesis alone.

Mr. Darwin proposes to throw some light upon this great mystery, and hence the promulgation of his doctrines. He believes that originally there were but a limited number of types or species created by the Divine will; and that successive species have been produced by the effort of Nature to adapt the offsprings of the original species to new requirements in their existence in this planet. Others besides Mr. Darwin have maintained, that living bodies possess in themselves this property of adaptation to necessity-that they are perpetually throwing away what is no. longer fitted for their use, and taking up forms better suited to them, which forms by mysterious laws they convert into a part of themselves. When engaged in examining the geological formation of the earth, geologists occasionally stumble upon fossil remains of animals so different from those now living, and yet so like them in important parts of anatomical structure, that they find no difficulty in ranking both the bones and the living being under one species, and accounting for the changes in the latter by the same sort of reasoning which has been now advanced by Mr. Darwin, with greater force of argument than it ever was advanced before. We have it on the authority of Professor Owen that the ancestors of the horse (as we see it now) owned three hoofs like oxen; which arrangement is accounted for by · the facility it must undoubtedly have afforded, in extricating the foot when it sank into the swampy ground whereon the Hipparion, or the extinct threehoofed horse, lived.

But to return to Mr. Darwin. As the result of long-continued experiments which he personally made, Mr. Darwin enunciates the following first principles; which are, more or less, admitted by his scientific contemporaries,

namely, that offsprings have a constant tendency to possess peculiarities of their own, different from those of their parents; and that they also have a constant tendency to inherit some peculiarity from their parents. Availing himself of the advantages which these two inexplicable but evident laws of Nature afford, anybody might, from a given pair of animals of one species,

produce ultimately a pair so very different from the parent stock, that if discovered as fossils our naturalists would class the last production as of a distinct species from the first. The modus operandi or process of transmuting one species into another is thus illustrated. You wish to get rabbits with monstrously long ears from a litter of young ones select a pair which have the longest ears, and from their offsprings make similar selections. Both the laws of deviation and inheritance above alluded to will give ample scope for success; that is to say, some of the young ones will inherit the remarkably long ears of their parents, and also deviate so much as to possess comparatively longer ears. From the last stock you continue to make selections of long-eared pairs, until their successors in course of time reward you by acquiring "aural protuberances" of the required length!

Mr. Darwin further proceeds to lay down, as an additional doctrine-that selection like as above, which is directed by the sense of man to serve a desired object, is in the operations of nature substituted by a struggle for life, which it seems is incessantly at work around us. An explanation of this has been given, which we think it as well to repeat. A given species of animals find it necessary to overcome some new difficulty in their manner of living; and it is best accomplished by those which possess the most favourable means to overcome it: those not so favoured succumb and perish. Now the offsprings of the survivors (by the working of the laws of inheritance and deviation) partake more or less of the favourable means owned by their parents, and in their turn the most favoured live; some of their offsprings would have increased means; and so this struggle for existence creates the want of an organisation different from the prototypes, and which is met and supplied by the operation of very simple laws, directed by Divine Providence.

There can, of course, be no longer any wonder, that by the ingenious application of this theory, it may be possible for mankind to escape many evils which the vicissitudes of life in this planet engender; as well as to counteract natural disabilities to any special

calling. Supposing that, by combining business with science, those who have the control of the Ceylon pearl fisheries were to select the best divers and their children, and so forth: does it not appear just within the verge of possibility, that in several centuries to come, the absolute necessity for these people obtaining favourable means for remaining long submerged in water might make them amphibious? We have not the remotest intention of treating the theory with levity. We are not deeply versed in the science of natural history, and do not presume either to decry or commend; but a conclusion bordering on the absurd is capable of being obtained from the premises laid down by Mr. Darwin, although, doubtless, the absurdity is only caused by the imperfection of the premises, which might be rectified in time. Mr. Darwin admits that his theory is not susceptible of this kind of accurate reasoning. It is not an established theory," but an "extremely probable one," which, even in its present crude state, is believed to be preferable to the alternative of supposing that every species is an instance of spontaneous growth fully developed in all its parts.

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There are

What we have ascribed in the foregoing to Mr. Darwin is the gist of his doctrines. And if it was only a matter of choice between accepting them or confessing that we know nothing about the origin of species-that it is supernatural,—there is, at all events, not much difficulty in deciding. But such is far from being the case. men of equally catholic reputation with Mr. Darwin; and whose opinions, formed with labour not surpassed by his own devotion to science, are of equal weight, who reject both alternatives for others. The diversity of opinions which exists among them is amazing. The adherents of each side hold large meetings in England, and thereat, as well as in the papers, and in magazines, bespatter each other with scientific arguments, which rival in bewilderment the recent discussions about the rotation of the moon.

It is obviously impossible to feel satisfied, when there is among philosophers so much dissension about Mr. Darwin's theory, that it has hit the

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