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قراءة كتاب The History of Creation, Vol. 1 (of 2) Or the Development of the Earth and its Inhabitants by the Action of Natural Causes
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اللغة: English
The History of Creation, Vol. 1 (of 2) Or the Development of the Earth and its Inhabitants by the Action of Natural Causes
الصفحة رقم: 1
THE HISTORY OF CREATION.
THE
HISTORY OF CREATION:
OR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EARTH AND ITS
INHABITANTS BY THE ACTION OF NATURAL CAUSES
A POPULAR EXPOSITION OF
THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION IN GENERAL, AND OF THAT OF
DARWIN, GOETHE, AND LAMARCK IN PARTICULAR.
FROM THE GERMAN OF
ERNST HAECKEL,
PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF JENA.
THE TRANSLATION REVISED BY
E. RAY LANKESTER, M.A., FELLOW OF EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET.
1880.
A sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean, and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man; A motion and a spirit that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things.
In all things, in all natures, in the stars Of azure heaven, the unenduring clouds, In flower and tree, in every pebbly stone That paves the brooks, the stationary rocks, The moving waters and the invisible air. Wordsworth.
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
| CHAPTER I. | |
| NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF FILIATION, OR DESCENT-THEORY. | |
| PAGE | |
| General Importance and Essential Nature of the Theory of Descent as reformed by Darwin.—Its Special Importance to Biology (Zoology and Botany).—Its Special Importance to the History of the Natural Development of the Human Race.—The Theory of Descent as the Non-Miraculous History of Creation.—Idea of Creation.—Knowledge and Belief.—History of Creation and History of Development.—The Connection between the History of Individual and Palæontological Development.—The Theory of Purposelessness, or the Science of Rudimentary Organs.—Useless and Superfluous Arrangements in Organisms.—Contrast between the two entirely Opposed Views of Nature: the Monistic (mechanical, causal) and the Dualistic (teleological, vital).—Proof of the former by the Theory of Descent.—Unity of Organic and Inorganic Nature, and the Identity of the Active Causes in both.—The Importance of the Theory of Descent to the Monistic Conception of all Nature. | 1 |
| CHAPTER II. | |
| SCIENTIFIC JUSTIFICATION OF THE THEORY OF DESCENT. HISTORY OF CREATION ACCORDING TO LINNÆUS. | |
| The Theory of Descent, or Doctrine of Filiation, as the Monistic Explanation of Organic Natural Phenomena.—Its Comparison with Newton’s Theory of Gravitation.—Limits of Scientific Explanation and of Human Knowledge in general.—All Knowledge founded originally on Sensuous Experience, à posteriori.—Transition of à posteriori knowledge, by inheritance, into à priori knowledge.—Contrast between the Supernatural Hypotheses of the Creation according to Linnæus, Cuvier, Agassiz, and the Natural Theories of Development according to Lamarck, Goethe, and Darwin.—Connection of the former with the Monistic (mechanical), of the latter with the Dualistic Conception of the Universe.—Monism and Materialism.—Scientific and Moral Materialism.—The History of Creation according to Moses.—Linnæus as the Founder of the Systematic Description of Nature and Distinction of Species.—Linnæus’ Classification and Binary Nomenclature.—Meaning of Linnæus’ Idea of Species.—His History of Creation.—Linnæus’ view of the Origin of Species | 24 |
| CHAPTER III. | |
| THE HISTORY OF CREATION ACCORDING TO CUVIER AND AGASSIZ. | |
| General Theoretical Meaning of the Idea of Species.—Distinction between the Theoretical and Practical Definition of the Idea of Species.—Cuvier’s Definition of Species.—Merits of Cuvier as the Founder of Comparative Anatomy.—Distinction of the Four Principal Forms (types or branches) of the Animal Kingdom, by Cuvier and Bär.—Cuvier’s Services to Palæontology.—His Hypothesis of the Revolutions of our Globe, and the Epochs of Creation separated by them.—Unknown Supernatural Causes of the Revolutions, and the subsequent New Creations.—Agassiz’s Teleological System of Nature.—His Conception of the Plan of Creation, and its six Categories (groups in classification).—Agassiz’s Views of the Creation of Species.—Rude Conception of the Creator as a man-like being in Agassiz’s Hypothesis of Creation.—Its internal Inconsistency and Contradictions with the important Palæontological Laws discovered by Agassiz | 47 |
| CHAPTER IV. | |
| THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT ACCORDING TO GOETHE AND OKEN. | |
| Scientific Insufficiency of all Conceptions of a Creation of Individual Species.—Necessity of the Counter Theories of Development.—Historical Survey of the most Important Theories of Development.—Aristotle.—His Doctrine of Spontaneous Generation.—The Meaning of Nature-philosophy.—Goethe.—His Merits as a Naturalist.—His Metamorphosis of Plants.—His Vertebral Theory of the Skull.—His Discovery of the Mid Jawbone in Man.—Goethe’s Interest in the Dispute between Cuvier and Geoffroy St. Hilaire.—Goethe’s Discovery of the two Organic Formative Principles, of the Conservative Principle of Specification (by Inheritance), and of the Progressive Principle of Transformation (by Adaptation).—Goethe’s Views of the Common Descent of all Vertebrate Animals, including Man.—Theory of Development according to Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus.—His Monistic Conception of Nature.—Oken.—His Nature-philosophy.—Oken’s Theory of Protoplasm—Oken’s Theory of Infusoria (Cell Theory).—Oken’s Theory of Development | 72 |
| CHAPTER V. | |
| THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT ACCORDING TO KANT AND LAMARCK. | |
| Kant’s Dualistic Biology.—His |