Part 18 (1/2)
When in 1628 Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood, physiology was almost unknown, and medicine was in the full tide of empiricism It is well known that the Faculty of Medicine of Paris refused to believe in circulation, in _spite of_ experiments, and that it persecuted and calumniated Harvey ”That which pleases me in my son,” said Diafoirus, ”and in which he follows my example, is, that he remains faithful to the opinions of our ancient teachers, and that he has always refused either to _understand_ or to _listen_ to the arguments and experiments of the pretended discoveries of our century, especially as regards the circulation of the blood”
The history of the discovery of germinative foliations in the embryonic development of vertebrates forms one of the most impressive of huorously upheld aeneration: that is to say, it was believed that the geranisms completely formed which would eventually unfold and increase the parts of infinitesimal dimensions which were packed one within the other
This theory applied to every living creature, aniical develop theory of ” organisms are _pre-formed_, they must of necessity all have existed from the Creation, the one included, or wrapped up, in the other All humanity must have lain in the ovaries of Eve When in 1690 Leuwenhoek discovered spermatozoa by the aid of the microscope, the idea was evolved that each male cell contained a complete microscopic man, the _homunculus_; and then it was announced that not Eve, but Adam had contained all humanity within hihteenth century kept their adherents sharply divided, the theories of the ovulists and those of the animalculists, and the dispute seemed to offer little hope of a possible decision The names of famous scientists and philosophers were associated with these dissensions, those, for instance, of Spallanzani and of Liebnitz, who applied the principles of generation even to the soul ”Thus I should think,” said Liebnitz, ”that the souls which will one day becoeranized bodies in their progenitors fros” [8]
Haller, the ovulist, who had great authority as a physiologist, in a faorously: ”_Nulla est epigenesis Nulla in corpore animale pars ante alia is created anew, no part of the human body is made before any other part, all are created at the saony of the nus ere packed in the ovaries of Eve, he reckons them at two hundred thousand ht when in 1759 K F Wolff published soenerationis_, where he th of experiments and microscopic observations anisms are not pre-for fro--that is, from a microscopic cell, simple as are all primitive cells He described the simple process by which the real evolution of individuals is brought about: froht, are forerminated divide themselves into two or three tiny folds of ”priinning with the alimentary canal ”This assertion,” says Wolff ”is not a fanciful theory; it is a description of facts collected by means of the most trustworthy observations”
[Footnote 8: Froenie_]
All the scientists of his day knew and , that is, the embryo of a fowl, as a subject for observation; they were not indifferent to the probleenesis, but in their case it had ination, and had divided theht Could any one of them atte hiether with his adversaries, as Samson destroyed hiht be soht recur, should indeed have induced some one to venture upon a road which, if it proved to be the right one, would have been a glorious path to a future of discoveries and distinctions But no A dense fog obscured alltruth could not pierce it; thus all progress in ey was precluded
Fifty years had passed, and Wolff, poor and persecuted, had died at Petrograd, an exile frorappled aneith the theory of ”blastodermic foliation” Then the scientific world _perceived_ the truth and accepted the evidence, inaugurating those studies in ey which shed so much luster on the nineteenth century
Why was it necessary that fifty years should elapse before men could see as evident? What had happened in these fifty years? The work of Wolff, dead and forgotten, can have had no influence whatever The fact was merely that men saw _subsequently_ what it had been previously _impossible for them to see_ A kind of internal maturity must have come about in them, by virtue of which their spiritual eyes were opened, and they saw When _those eyes were closed_, evidence was useless Fifty years earlier, a direct attack would have spent itself on insuperable obstacles; but with the lapse of time the subject presented itself, and was sile, but without any exciteuable in relation to the internal maturation of the masses; but it is beyond question in its relation to the individual When an obvious truth cannot be seen, we le ”to bring about perception of evidence” would be bitter and exhausting But when maturity comes, we shall find the seer filled with enthusias fruit like the vines of the Land of Promise
When in 1859 Charles Darwin expounded the theory of evolution in his book, ”The Origin of Species,” he recognized the great influence it had had upon the thought of his day, for he wrote in his note-book: ”My theory will lead to a philosophy” His conception of the struggle for life and of the natural selection of characteristics, so widely adopted by the thinkers of his day, popularized the principles of Lamarck as to the casual formation of new characteristics in a species by adaptation to environ with it--and almost fused the both creation and its finalities, implicitly denied the immortality of the soul The effect of such a revolution ined; for many centuries the soul had been the _object of life_, and when the fundamental faith of existence was shaken, the life of the conscience itself was convulsed It may be supposed that there was an anxious search for contradictions in the destructive theory, if on no other grounds than that of the instinct to preserve ancient beliefs, which lies deeply rooted in the human race
But let us take into consideration the two revolutionary principles which so greatly impressed and fired the consciousness of the university students of several generations One principle was: ”There can be no function without an organ” The other principle which createdstudious youths was: ”The function creates the organ” What! There is no function without an organ, nor can the function even _exist without_ the organ; and yet, on the other hand, the function without the organ can exist so vigorously as to _create_? No such glaring and tangible contradiction had ever existed in any theory
And it cannot be said that Darwinism and the principles of Lamarck were hastily studied and confused in a varied series of philosophical theories, for Darwinism had isolated itself as a victorious idea which drives out all other ideas, as the light of day disperses the darkness of night And students dwelt upon it, anxious to construct a new morality and a new conscience; therefore these two principles were not studied coldly and languidly Moreover, they _penetrated together_ into the consciousness and excited enthusiasm _each on its own account_; on such a triumphant contradiction it was proposed to destroy a world and create another
The final conclusion of thought, then, was this: ”We are mere beasts, there is no substantial difference between the animals and ourselves; we are apes, but our more remote ancestors were earthworms” With what ardor did professors froy ofin ourselves which we do not share with animals, and hat enthusiasm did their pupils applaud theeons andthe creatures, exhibited the the most sincere attention to the study of their psychical reactions, observing the attitudes of their bodies, their activity of perception, and sis--all really believed that an aniy of man!
When we think that this was the epoch of _positivism_--that is to say, of those who could not believe without touching, we are profoundly ience, then, is threatened by dangers, like the spirit It may be obscured, itit, and as a result of a single unnoticed error it may rush into a species of delirium, a mortal aberration Like the spirit, then, it has its way of salvation, and it _needs to be sustained_ lest it should perish The support it requires is _not that of the senses_ Like the spirit, it needs a continual purification, which, like the fish of Tobias, heals the eyes of their blindness That ”self-care” which the hygiene of to-day prescribes for the body, and whichour nails, should be extended to the inner rity
This should be the object of ”the education of the intelligence” To educate the intelligence is to save it froe it of its offenses” We shall not educate the intelligence if eary it by s
This is patent in these days of ours, when the victims of nervous disorders and lunacy abound, and when, even a those who are considered healthy, thethe whole of huoverned, not by the desire ”to s,” but by the endeavor always to keep burning within hience If to this end we must consecrate ourselves as did the vestals of old, it will be a orthy of so great a result
IX
IMAGINATION
=The creative io, soe-coaches and using oil-laht; that e would be understood on land, that their flight in the air would surpass that of the eagle--our good forefathers would have sinations would never have been able to conceive these things To them, modern men would have seemed almost like ination of modern men is based upon the positive researches of science, whereas the es allowed their le fact has changed the face of the world
When man loses himself in ed, but when iins to construct works by means of which the external world becoht of man had assumed a ine the thought of God; all creation is the divine thought, which has the property of realizing itself God thought: and behold! light, the order of creation, living things, appeared