THE LAST MAN.
REV. C. P. OSBORNE.
The first man is named by sacred history. Scientific prophecy ventures to tell us who the last man is to be.
Prof. Alphonse de Candolle, son and successor of the great naturalist, wrote, a few years since, some interesting speculations on the probable future of the human race. This paper was deemed of sufficient value to be republished in the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, for the year 1875. In the course of his discussion the eminent writer shows reason for believing that the last man is to be, not one man, but three. The future history of mankind, leaving out of the account any possible catastrophe that might suddenly extinguish the race, will be, in his view, somewhat as follows.
For an extended period the population of the globe, favored by improved methods of agriculture, by migration to unoccupied lands, by general prevalence of peace consequent upon higher morality, will increase until the world is stocked with inhabitants to its fullest capacity. Then, after a period, will begin a process of depopulation. The conditions of life in the colder regions will be greatly changed by growing scarcity of the fuel supply; the world’s stock of minerals will be gradually exhausted by rust and wear, which will bring an end of ships, railroads and commerce, and thus increase the difficulty of maintaining life; and the incessant action of water, ice and air will constantly diminish the land area of the globe, until only mountains will remain as islands above the surface of the sea. Under the combined action of these agencies, the principles of natural selection and survival of the fittest will come into play with decisive effect, and in the struggle for life the weaker races will one by one succumb and disappear. Three races, however, exhibit qualities which fit them to survive beyond all others.
1. The white race, as represented by Europeans and their American descendants, thanks to their intelligence and habitual bravery, skill, and the confidence they can place in each other, will sustain the struggle. 2. The negroes also will prevail, on account of their physical vigor, power to resist malaria and to flourish in tropical regions, where the white race rapidly deteriorates. 3. The yellow race, represented principally by the Chinese, will maintain their place, since they have great vigor of stock, a capacity to exist on small resources, and alone seem sufficiently intelligent and robust to struggle in all latitudes with both the other races.
The last man, then, is to be a white man, a negro and a Chinaman. But de Candolle seems to think that the negro may, after all, be the last man of this triumvirate. For the white man, occupying scattered islands in the colder regions, and deprived of fuel, might be exterminated by the more or less periodical invasions of ice from polar regions, while the black man could continue to subsist with little effort on the pulp of tropical melons.
Such is a brief outline of the curious speculations of this eminent savant. Of their value as science or prophecy, of their correspondence with Biblical views of the future of human history, let the reader make his own judgment. The writer simply asks attention to a few obvious suggestions.
1. It is a very significant fact that a man of recognized eminence as a scientist should, in a glance at the probable future of mankind, give so important a place to the despised African. It is a fact that more than justifies all the deep interest of the Christian and the philanthropist in that unfortunate race. Christians are not in any danger of giving undue attention to the claims of the negro upon their prayers and benefactions.
2. The conclusions of science, that the African race is fitted to persist among the latest inhabitants of the earth, are confirmed by the evidence of facts. The census of 1880 produced two genuine surprises. First, the fact that the largest relative increase of population in the United States during the last decade was in the former slave States. Second, that this result was due to the fact that while the increase of the whites of those States was some two per cent. below the average for the whole country, the increase of the blacks was more than three per cent. above that average.
It is thus demonstrated that negroes are not to be numbered with those races which, like Australians, Hawaiians and American Indians, fade away and disappear in the presence of more civilized races. The negro in warm latitudes has shown his ability, with less than a fair chance, to hold more than his own with the white man. We may no longer hope that the grave problems, social, political and religious, connected with his residence in our land, are to be solved by the gradual extinction of the race. The black man will not die; he must be instructed and evangelized.
3. If we are to have black men and yellow men for our neighbors to the end of time, it is for our interest to be on good terms with them. As a matter of policy it will be best for us to do all we can to make them comfortable—I may even say, companionable neighbors.