Zomer 2009 no. 67
The Dutch Dickensian Volume XXIX 58
Charles Diekdns.l j\TJv THE
the bad swimmers if they had not been able to
swim at all, and had stuck to the ■wreck.
The theory, of which, a brief sample has been
•j given, entails the vastest consequences. We
are no longer to look at an organic being as a
savage looks at a shipas at something wholly
beyond lus comprehension; we are to regard
every production of nature as one which has had
a history; we are to contemplate every complex,
structure and instinct as the summing up of
I many contrivances, each useful to the possessor,
nearly in the same way as when wc look at any
great mechanical invention as the summing up
of the labour, the experience, the reason, and
I even the blunders, of numerous workmen. The
natural system of elassilicat ion becomes a genea-
logical arrangement, in which wo have to dis
cover the lines of descent by the most perma
nent characters, however slight their vital
jI importance may be; because the real affinities
of all organic beings are due to inheritance or
j: community of descent. Natural Selection can
j only act through and for the good of each being
j acting by competition, it adapts the inhabitants
I of each country only in relation to the degree of
3perfection of their associatesso that we need
feci no surprise at the inhabitants of any one
country (although on the ordinary view sup
posed to have been specially created and adapted
for that country) being beaten and supplanted
by tke naturalised productions from another
land. Nor ought wo to marvel if all the contri
vances in nature be not, as far as wc can judge,
absolutely perfectand if seme of them be ab-
horrent to our ideas of fitness. We need not
marvel at the sting of the bee causing the bee's
own deathat the instinctive hatred of the
queen bee for her own fertile daughters; and at
other such oases.
Judging from the past, we are to infer that
not one living species will transmit its unaltered
likeness to a distant futurity- And, of the
species now living, veTy few will transmit pro
geny of any kind to a far-distant futurityfor
the manner in which all organic beings are
I grouped, shows that the. greater number of spe-
I cies of each genus, and all the species of many
genera, have left no descendants, but have
become utterly extinct. We can so far take a
prophetic glance into futurity as to foretel that
it will be the common and widely-spread species,
belonging to the larger and dominant groups,
which will ultimately prevail and procreate new
i and dominant species. And as Natural Selection
works solely hy and for the good of each being,
3 all corporeal and mental endowments will tend
j I to progress towards perfection. Thus, from the
war of nature, from famine and death, the most
exalted object which we arc capable of con
ceiving-, namely, the production of the higher
animals, directly follows.
Timid persons, who purposely cultivate a
certain inertia of mind, and who love to cling to
i their preconceived ideas, fearing to look at such
a mighty subject from an unauthorised and un-
wonted point of view, may be reassured by the
I reflection that, for theories, as for organised
I HOUND. ov is».; 299
beings, there is also a Natural Selection and a
Struggle for Life. The world has seen all sorts of
theories rise, have their day, and fall into neglect. 1
Those theories only survive which are based on
truth, as far as our intellectual faculties can at, 1 j
present ascertainsuch as the Newtonian theory
of universal gravitation. If Mr. Darwin's
theory bo true, nothing can prevent its nlti- :j
mate and general reception, however much it j|
may pain and shock those to whom it is pro- j]
pounded for the first time. If it bo merely a
clever hypothesis, an ingenious hallucination,
to which a very industrious and able man iias
devoted the greater and the best part of his life,
its failure will be nothing new in the history of
science. It will bo a Penelope's web, which,
though woven with great skill and art, will be
ruthlessly unwoven, leaving to some more com
petent artist the task of putting together a more j
solid and enduring fabric.
AKDISON AND CO.
Thu Island of Sardinia, one of the rare
Italian localities hitherto happily exempt from
the excitement of political passions, and the
disturbing influences which have seldom ceased
to trample the bosom of its continental parent,
has recently been startled by the discovery of a
moral disease in its domestic life, which will find
few parallels in the history of crime.
Most persons who, like the writer, have had
opportunities of studying the character and
social habits of the island Sards, bear willing 1
testimony to their quiet industry, their calm
content, their affectionate disposition, their
almost patriarchal practice of the relative j
duties of host and guest, of master and servant,
and, lastly, to their cordial yet not undignified
appreciation of interest felt or courtesy ex- jj
pressed by pilgrims from afar.
Petty crimes are of singularly rare occurrence. 3
The prisoners at this moment coufmed in the
gaols of Sassari and Cagliari are almost exclu
sively importationsnot children of the soil
and the prison of the large town of Cagliari has j
notfortwoyearsencloscdasingleoecupahi. When
murder has, from time to time, left its stain on
these otherwise satisfactory records, it lias been
usually traceable to no meaner source than the
quick and fiery jealousy in all ages a notable cha
racteristic of this people, or to the lingering influ
ence of the deadly vendetta"—-inherited'blood- j
feudwhich has sacrificed whole families, aud
once depopulated an entire village for one girl.
There was, years ago, a certain village j
beauty, whose list of lovers included every dis
engaged male of the township, and this maiden j
had three fierce brothers. Now, to salute the 3
lips of a fair lady in public, constitutes an of- j
fence which, if not condoned by instant marriage,
entails an inevitable "vendetta" upon the
families concerned. In order, it seemed, to
bring matters to a crisis, the most impatient of
the suitors availed bimself of a village fêr.e, to
salute his beautiful mistress at the head of a
procession, lie was not the favoured one, for
