Say, friend, what is it, false or true?
The false, what mortal cares to know?
The true, what mortal ever knew?
Section I. Archaic, or Modern Anthropology?
Whenever the question of the Origin of Man is offered seriously to an unbiassed, honest, and earnest man of Science, the answer comes invariably: “We do not know.” De Quatrefages with his agnostic attitude is one of such Anthropologists.
This does not imply that the rest of the men of Science are neither fair-minded nor honest, as such a remark would be questionably discreet. But it is estimated that 75 per cent. of European Scientists are Evolutionists. Are these representatives of Modern Thought all guilty of flagrant misrepresentation of the facts? No one says this—but there are a few very exceptional cases. However, the Scientists, in their anti-clerical enthusiasm and in despair of any alternative theory to Darwinism except that of “special creation,” are unconsciously insincere in “forcing” a hypothesis the elasticity of which is inadequate, and which resents the severe strain to which it is now subjected. Insincerity on the same subject is, however, patent in ecclesiastical circles. Bishop Temple has come forward as a thorough-going supporter of Darwinism in his Religion and Science. This clerical writer goes so far as to regard Matter—after it has received its “primal impress”—as the unaided evolver of all cosmic phenomena. This view only differs from that of Hæckel, in postulating a hypothetical Deity at “the back of beyont,” a Deity which stands entirely aloof from the interplay of forces. Such a metaphysical entity is no more the Theological [pg 682] God than is that of Kant. Bishop Temple's truce with materialistic Science is, in our opinion, impolitic—apart from the fact that it involves a total rejection of the biblical cosmogony. In the presence of this display of flunkeyism before the materialism of our “learned” age, we Occultists can but smile. But how about loyalty to the Master such theological truants profess to serve—Christ, and Christendom at large?
However, we have no desire, for the present, to throw down the gauntlet to the clergy, our business being now with materialistic Science alone. The latter, in the person of its best representatives, answers to our question, “We do not know;” yet the majority of them act as though Omniscience were their heirloom, and they knew all things.
For, indeed, this negative reply has not prevented the majority of Scientists from speculating on the question, each seeking to have his own special theory accepted to the exclusion of all others. Thus, from Maillet in 1748, down to Hæckel in 1870, theories on the origin of the human race have differed as much as the personalities of their inventors themselves. Buffon, Bory de St. Vincent, Lamarck, E. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, Gaudry, Naudin, Wallace, Darwin, Owen, Hæckel, Filippi, Vogt, Huxley, Agassiz, etc., each has evolved a more or less scientific hypothesis of genesis. De Quatrefages arranges these theories in two principal groups—one based on a rapid, and the other on a very gradual transmutation; the former favouring a new type (man) produced by a being entirely different, the latter teaching the evolution of man by progressive differentiations.