Bishops1 should speak as men having authority, and not as the Scribes and Pharisees. Even the smallest of them should be a great man. An archbishop, with fifteen thousand a year, ought to possess a transcendent intellect, almost beyond comprehension; while the worst paid of all the reverend fathers of the Church, with less than a fifth of that salary, ought to possess no common powers of mind. The Bishop2 of Carlisle is not rich as bishops go, but he enjoys a yearly income of ￡4,500, besides the patronage4 of forty-nine livings. Now this quite equals the salary of the Prime Minister of the greatest empire in the world, and the Bishop of Carlisle should therefore be a truly great man. We regret however, to say that he is very much the reverse, if we may judge from a newspaper report which has reached us of his lecture on "Man's Place in Nature," recently delivered before the Keswick Scientific and Literary Society. Newspaper reports, we know, are often misleading in consequence of their summary character; nevertheless two columns of small type must give some idea of a discourse5, however abstruse6 or profound; here and there, if such occured, a fine thought or a shrewd observation would shine through the densest7 veil. Yet, unless our vision be exceptionally obtuse8, nothing of the kind is apparent in this report of the Bishop's lecture. Being, as his lordship confessed, the development of "a sermon delivered to the men at the Royal Agricultural Society's Show last summer," the lecture was perhaps, like the sermon, adapted to the bucolic10 mind, and thus does meagre justice to the genius of its author. His lordship, however, chose to read it before a society with some pretentions to culture, and therefore such a plea cannot avail. As the case stands, we are constrained11 to accuse the bishop of having delivered a lecture on a question of supreme12 importance, which would do little credit to the president of a Young Men's Christian13 Association; and when we reflect that a parson occupied the chair at the meeting, and that the vote of thanks to the episcopal lecturer was moved by a canon, who coupled with it some highly complimentary14 remarks, we are obliged to think the Church more short of brains than even we had previously15 believed, and that Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin has already been written on its temple walls by the finger of doom16.
Very early in his lecture the Bishop observed that "the Scriptures17 are built on the hypothesis of the supreme and unique position of man." Well, there is nothing novel in this statement. What we want is some proof of the hypothesis. His lordship's way of supplying this need is, to say the least, peculiar18. After saying that "he would rather trust the poet as an exponent19 of man than he would a student of natural history," he proceeds to quote from Shakespeare, Pope and Plato, and ends that part of his argument with a rhetorical flourish, as though he had thus really settled the whole case of Darwin versus20 Moses. Our reverence21 of great poets is probably as deep and sincere as the Bishop's, but we never thought of treating them as scientific authorities, or as witnesses to events that happened hundreds of thousands of years before their birth. Poets deal with subjective22 facts of consciousness, or with objective facts as related to these. The dry light of the intellect, radiated from the cloudless sun of truth, is not their proper element, but belongs exclusively to the man of science. They move in a softer element suffused23 with emotion, whose varied24 clouds are by the sun of imagination touched to all forms of beauty and splendor25. The scientific man's description of a lion, for instance, would be very different from a poet's; because the one would describe the lion as it is in itself, and the other as it affects us, a living whole, through our organs of sight and sound. Both are true, because each is faithful to its purpose and expresses a fact; yet neither can stand for the other, because they express different facts and are faithful to different purposes. Shakespeare poetically27 speaks of "the ruddy drops that visit this sad heart," but the scientific truth of the circulation of the blood had to await its Harvey. In like manner, it was not Milton but Newton who expounded28 the Cosmos29; the great poet, like Dante before him, wove pre-existent cosmical ideas into the texture30 of his sublime31 epic32, while the great scientist wove all the truth of them into the texture of his sublime theory. Let each receive his meed of reverent33 praise, but do not let us appeal to Newton on poetry or to Milton on physics. And when a Bishop of Carlisle, or other diocese, complains that "the views advanced by scientific men tend painfully to degrade the views of poets and philosophers," let us reply that in almost every case the great truths of science have been found to transcend3 infinitely34 the marvels35 of theology, and that the magnificence of song persists through all fluctuations36 of knowledge, because its real cause lies less in the subject than in the native grandeur37 of the poet's mind.
Man's place in nature is, indeed, a great question, and it can be settled only by a wide appeal to past and present facts. And those facts, besides being objective realities, must be treated in a purely38 scientific, and not in a poetic26 or didactic spirit. Let the poet sing the beauty of a consummate39 flower; and, if such things are required, let the moralist preach its lessons. But neither should arrogate40 the prerogative41 of the botanist42, whose special function it is to inform us of its genesis and development, and its true relations to other forms of vegetable life. So with man. The poet may celebrate his passions and aspirations43, his joys and sorrows, his laughter and tears, and ever body forth44 anew the shapes of things unseen; the moralist may employ every fact of his life to illustrate45 its laws or to enforce its duties; but they must leave it to the biologist to explain his position in the animal economy, and the stages by which it has been reached. With regard to that, Darwin is authoritative46, while Moses is not even entitled to a hearing.
Although the Bishop is very ready to quote from the poets, he is not always ready to use them fairly. For instance, he cites the splendid and famous passage in "Hamlet:"—"What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties47! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension48, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon49 of animals!" There his lordship stops, and then exclaims, "Shakespeare knew nothing of the evolution of man from inferior forms." But why did he not continue the quotation50? Hamlet goes on to say, "And yet, what to me is this quintessence of dust?" How now, your lordship? We have you on the hip9! "Quintessence of dust" comes perilously52 near to evolution. Does not your lordship remember, too, Hamlet's pursuing the dust of C?sar to the ignominious53 bunghole? And have you never reflected how the prescient mind of Shakespeare created an entirely54 new and wonderful figure in literature, the half-human, half-bestial Caliban, with his god Setebos—a truly marvellous resuscitation55 of primitive56 man, that in our day has inspired Mr. Browning's "Caliban on Setebos," which contains the entire essence of all that Tylor and other investigators57 in the same field have since written on the subject of Animism? It seems that the Lord Bishop of Carlisle reads even the poets to small purpose.
Haughtily58 waving the biologists aside, his lordship proceeds to remark that "man's superiority is not the same that a dog would claim over a lobster59, or an eagle over a worm;" the difference between man and other animals being "not one of degree, but of kind." Such a statement, without the least evidence being adduced to support it, places the Bishop almost outside the pale of civil discussion. When will these lordly ecclesiastics60 learn that the time for dogmatic assertion is past, and that the intellectual temper of the present age can be satisfied only by proof? We defy the Bishop of Carlisle to indicate a single phase of man's nature which has no parallel in the lower animals. Man's physical structure is notoriously akin61 to theirs, and even his brain does not imply a distinction of kind, for every convolution of the brain of man is reproduced in the brain of the higher apes. His lordship draws a distinction between instinct and reason, which is purely fanciful and evinces great ignorance of the subject. That, however, is a question we have at present no room to discuss; nor, indeed, is there any necessity to do so, since his lordship presently admits that the lower animals share our "reason" to some extent, just as to a much larger extent we share their "instinct," and thus evacuates62 the logical fortress63 he took such pains to construct.
Quitting that ground, which proves too slippery for his feet, the Bishop goes on to notice the moral and aesthetic64 difference between man and the lower animals. No animal, says his lordship, shows "anything approaching to a love of art." Now we are quite aware that no animal except man ever painted a picture or chiselled65 a statue, for these things involve a very high development of the artistic66 faculty67. But the appreciation68 of form and color, which is the foundation of all fine art, is certainly manifested by the lower animals, and by some fathem to an extreme degree. If his lordship doubts this, let him study the ways of animals for himself; or, if he cannot do that, let him read the chapters in Mr. Darwin's "Descent of Man" on sexual selection among birds. If he retains any doubt after that, we must conclude that his head is too hard or too soft to be influenced, in either of which cases he is much to be pitied.
His lordship thinks that the moral sense is entirely absent in the lower animals. This, however, is absurdly untrue; so much so, indeed, that we shall not trouble to refute it Good and noble, he avers69, are epithets70 inapplicable to animals, even to the horse or dog. What vain creatures men are to talk thus! Does his lordship remember Byron's epitaph on his Newfoundland dog, and the very uncomplimentary distinction drawn72 therein between dogs and men? Look at that big pet with the lordly yet tender eye! How he submits to the boisterous73 caresses74 of children, because he knows their weakness and shares their spirit of play! Let their elders do the same, and he will at once show resentment75. See him peril51 his life ungrudgingly for those he loves, or even for comparative strangers! And shall we deny him the epithet71 of noble or good? Whatever theologians may say, the sound heart of common men and women will answer No!
Lastly, we are told that "the religious sentiment is characteristically and supremely76 human." But here again we must complain of his lordship's mental confusion. The religious sentiment is not a simple but a highly complex emotion. Resolve it into its elemental feelings, and it will be found that all these are possessed77 in some degree by lower animals. The feeling of a dog who bays the moon is probably very similar to that of the savage78 who cowers79 and moans beneath an eclipse; and if the savage has superstitious80 ideas as well as awesome81 feelings, it is only because he possesses a higher development of thought and imagination.
Canon Battersby, who moved the vote of thanks to the Bishop, ridiculed82 the biologists, and likened them to Topsy who accounted for her existence by saying "Specs I growed." Just so. That is precisely83 how we all did come into existence. Growth and not making is the law for man as well as for every other form of life. Moses stands for manufacture and Darwin stands for growth. And if the great biologist finds himself in the company of Topsy, he will not mind. Perhaps, indeed, as he is said to enjoy a joke and to be able to crack one, might he jocularly observe to "tremendous personages" like the Bishop of Carlisle, that this is not the first instance of truths being hidden from the "wise" and revealed unto babes.
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1
bishops
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| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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transcend
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| vt.超出，超越(理性等)的范围 | |
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patronage
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| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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abstruse
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| adj.深奥的，难解的 | |
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densest
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| 密集的( dense的最高级 )； 密度大的； 愚笨的； （信息量大得）难理解的 | |
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obtuse
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| adj.钝的；愚钝的 | |
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hip
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| n.臀部，髋；屋脊 | |
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bucolic
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| adj.乡村的；牧羊的 | |
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constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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complimentary
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| adj.赠送的，免费的，赞美的，恭维的 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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scriptures
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| 经文，圣典( scripture的名词复数 )； 经典 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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exponent
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| n.倡导者，拥护者；代表人物；指数，幂 | |
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versus
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| prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下 | |
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reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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subjective
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| a.主观(上)的，个人的 | |
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suffused
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| v.（指颜色、水气等）弥漫于，布满( suffuse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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poetically
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| adv.有诗意地，用韵文 | |
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expounded
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| 论述，详细讲解( expound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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cosmos
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| n.宇宙；秩序，和谐 | |
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texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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epic
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| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
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reverent
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| adj.恭敬的，虔诚的 | |
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infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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marvels
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| n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 )；令人惊奇的事物（或事例）；不平凡的成果；成就v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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fluctuations
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| 波动，涨落，起伏( fluctuation的名词复数 ) | |
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grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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consummate
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| adj.完美的；v.成婚；使完美 [反]baffle | |
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arrogate
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| v.冒称具有...权利，霸占 | |
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prerogative
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| n.特权 | |
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botanist
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| n.植物学家 | |
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aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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illustrate
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| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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authoritative
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| adj.有权威的，可相信的；命令式的；官方的 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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paragon
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| n.模范，典型 | |
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quotation
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| n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情 | |
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peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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perilously
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| adv.充满危险地，危机四伏地 | |
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ignominious
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| adj.可鄙的，不光彩的，耻辱的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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resuscitation
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| n.复活 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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investigators
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| n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 ) | |
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haughtily
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| adv. 傲慢地, 高傲地 | |
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lobster
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| n.龙虾，龙虾肉 | |
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ecclesiastics
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| n.神职者，教会，牧师( ecclesiastic的名词复数 ) | |
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akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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evacuates
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| 撤离，疏散( evacuate的第三人称单数 )； 排空（胃肠），排泄（粪便）； （从危险的地方）撤出，搬出，撤空 | |
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fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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aesthetic
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| adj.美学的，审美的，有美感 | |
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chiselled
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| adj.凿过的，凿光的； （文章等）精心雕琢的v.凿，雕，镌( chisel的过去式 ) | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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avers
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| v.断言( aver的第三人称单数 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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epithets
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| n.（表示性质、特征等的）词语( epithet的名词复数 ) | |
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epithet
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| n.（用于褒贬人物等的）表述形容词，修饰语 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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boisterous
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| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
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caresses
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| 爱抚，抚摸( caress的名词复数 ) | |
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resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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supremely
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| adv.无上地，崇高地 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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cowers
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| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的第三人称单数 ) | |
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superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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awesome
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| adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的 | |
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ridiculed
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| v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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