Political and social evolution must not be confused with natural selection: it is human selection. Some years ago a cotton-planter in Georgia observed that the leaves on one of his plants was unlike the usual leaf; it was divided as if into fingers. So far nature had gone. The planter added his intelligence. He concluded that such a divided leaf would let in more sunshine on the cotton. Also such a leaf would not be comfortable for caterpillars. So he searched out one or two of these peculiar plants, transplanted them to a field by themselves; as they propagated, he plucked up those with the old leaf, cultivated those with the new,—and now these new cotton plants, finer than the old, free from caterpillars, are spread through many regions. That is human selection, based on natural selection, securing the fruits of evolution. It is just as applicable to man as to vegetation. A better man may be bred as well as a better kind of cotton. Already many old forms of crime have been largely bred out of society, by the substitution of imprisonment for thefts instead of the capital punishments which juries refused to inflict. Crime being largely hereditary, the offenders used to get free, and multiplied their bad species. But when punishments were assigned which juries were ready to inflict, the criminals were isolated for years, or transported, and their race diminished. The crime that now flourishes most is murder; because its death penalty survives. It was recently shown in Parliament that about three fourths of English murderers escape, mainly through aversion of juries, and merciful people, to inflict a savage and irrevocable penalty. Were capital punishment abolished the three fourths would be isolated for life. They would be kindly treated, but must have no offspring. No such survival of autocracy as a pardoning power could exist; no individual would be able to alter decrees of courts and juries. Instead of aiming at the murderer evolution aims at the murder. It will secure a survival of the peaceful, and breed ferocity out of man as it has bred the wolf out of dogs.
But that implies breeding the wolf out of our law. The eye for eye, blood for blood, spirit is wolfish. So is the whole revolutionary spirit, whether shown in armed violence, or in arbitrary laws. It can be acted upon, controlled, shamed out of society, only by pure moral and intellectual forces. There is no greater power than instructed thought, animated by love to man, enforced by honor and character.
There is as yet no civilised nation; civilisation exists in oases, which gradually encroach on the deserts. They have largely encroached on some of these already, but civilisation can only extend as it is real. The European nations are slicing up Africa among them. This we are told is Christian civilisation: they are taking their neighbor's property only because they love him like themselves. What is the civilisation going out there? You can see it in the dens of European cities. The Africans have got to be dragged through all that. What kind of religion will go there? A Bible recording divinely ordered massacres will be put in every savage hand. Stanley says that when in sore trouble, in the African forest, he made a vow that if God would only help him, he would acknowledge his aid among men. His troubles began to clear next day. God was indifferent, it seems, so long as man and beast were suffering, but when this great temptation was held out to Jehovah—this promise of distinguished patronage—he at once interfered. There is nothing new about that God. In the Bible, his providence is always purchasable by glory. There are thousands of such gods in Africa. But Europeans are going there as representatives of civilisation, and will say to them in the name of German and English Science, in the name of Berlin, Oxford, and Cambridge,—"These be thy gods, O Africa! Only agree to call their name Jehovah, who helped Jephtha, when he vowed a sacrifice which proved to be his daughter, and who helped Stanley on condition that the service would be reported in the press."
The intellect of Europe knows better than that; but it has very few organs of its protest against surviving barbarisms that devour the world under pretence of civilising it. And it forms few such organs because itself needs humanising. Just there America may lend a hand. Our science, our literature, and art, still lack moral earnestness, and human sympathy. The value of our every liberal moral movement and organ is therefore incalculable. It was a hopeful sign to see lately on the platform of the Ethical Congress in New York leaders in various denominations,—Heber Newton, President Andrews, Lyman Abbott, Rabbi Isaacs, Felix Adler,—uniting to establish a College for Moral Culture; all admitting that the theological seminaries, public schools, and universities, had left them uninstructed in the great social, economic, ethical, and political problems which have now come urgently to the front. The prophets of Jehovah once said of Baal, "Peradventure he sleepeth." The prophets of Jehovah now admit the same concerning their ancient Syrian deity. But the divine humanity is awaking. It will rise above prejudice and party. It will inspire no man to lay an axe at the root of his neighbor's holy tree because it is not his own, but to plant beside it one which they both agree is good, and agree to nourish, and which shall prove so fruitful, so sweet, that strength shall be drawn away from the roots of evil institutions, and they shall wither away. That which, assailed by revolution, is sure to be defended, and, if felled, to be reared again, evolution may gently wither by production of the more fit. The sacred groves of the Past may still cherish their traditional names, but, if not shattered by revolutionary lightnings, they will turn themselves to fences around the garden where fruits of knowledge and the happier life are growing.
MONCURE D. CONWAY.
A CONVICTED ANARCHIST'S REPLY TO PROFESSOR LOMBROSO.
I have read with much interest Professor Lombroso's article about the anarchists, and I found many things in it that are true, but also many errors. Even should we admit Professor Lombroso's theory to be correct, it would in the present case avail but little, because the portraits from which he made his deductions are not sufficiently truthful for his purpose. 'Schaak's' book is said to be a fictitious 'robber story,' and I am informed that it contains many untruths absolutely invented for ornament and decoration. It is in the highest degree improbable that such a book should not have caricatured the portraits of the anarchists. In books designed for sale to the masses, the illustrations are not, as a rule, of any value as works of art, even if the persons pictured in them enjoy the author's favor. The only true to life pictures are the photographs which Dr. Carus sent to Professor Lombroso, and these were taken in the county jail; but it appears that the Professor thought little of them, for he says, 'Perhaps these photographs were taken some years before the crime, when they were very young,' and the pictures in the Vorbote were drawn after the photographs, and are therefore of no account so long as the photographs themselves are accessible.
Certain as it is that vice, crime, and brutality very often find a characteristic expression of face, so equally certain is it also that prominent physiognomists very often judge inaccurately and falsely. There are many instances of this. In Mantegazza's work are found examples. Now, if it is difficult to arrive at a correct opinion under favorable circumstances, it is almost impossible to do so if such pictures as those of Schaak's, with Schaak's explanations, form the basis and starting point of the inquiry.
Johann Most has an unsymmetric face; this however, is not the fault of nature, but of an unskilful surgeon. Of Engel I know nothing, except that he joined the socialists at an advanced age. In his earlier years he advocated anti-Socialistic ideas. After his first arrest he was set free upon the good word of Coroner Herz, who declared that he knew Engel for years as a quiet and well-behaved citizen.
With Lingg I was not on friendly terms, and therefore propriety demands that I keep silent about him.