BROWNING AND DEVELOPMENT

71 of animal descent. Lamarck had, however, in 1809 put forth a theory of development which may have influenced Browning in some degree; if this were so, it is another proof of the scientific bent of his mind of which so many hints are found in his poems. It does not seem, however, on a careful examination of the poet's language, that he held any definite theory of development of man from lower forms of animal life. The attributes scattered about the world seeking to be combined in a higher form of life suggested to the Creator "some one creature yet to make," not to develop by an age-long process. In Cleon man is God's "last premeditated work," and although it is said "he left the lower and unconscious forms of life," and had "lived at first the animal life," Browning believes a quality arose within his soul which for ever differentiates him from the brute. While it is possible to maintain that Browning held a view of descent and development not very different from Darwin's, it is not possible to prove that he admitted for an instant that the soul is brute-descended. Call it "a distinct creation," "miraculous interposition of the Creator's power," or what we will, Browning held that man alone is a specific brain-being, and agreed with Professor Virchow that "it is quite certain that man does not descend from the ape."

It is, however, no argument against the super

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MAN NOT APE-DESCENDED

natural element in man to prove that he has descended, so far as regards his merely animal nature, from lower forms. The chemical analysis of the body of a monkey or of a dog does not differ very materially from that of a man. The air the monkey breathes supports his life, just as it does our own. His bones, muscles, nerves, and blood are built up of the same materials in much the same way as ours, and it no more shakes the argument for a specialized creation of man to prove that he has descended from inferior forms of animal life, than it does to say that because his tissues are formed of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen like those of the beasts, he can be no more than a better sort of brute. Says Dr. Alexander: "As a Christian I have no reason for being prejudiced against the hypothesis that there were creatures preceding man approaching to him remarkably in structure, and probably with some faint rudiments of some of his powers. But the original of Man is not there. It is not in a feeble creature cowering on the banks of some icy river, and feebly protecting himself with arrow-heads of flints from the brutes by whom he was surrounded. . . . Man in the true sense... a being of a higher order-for whose creation God took counsel in the depths of His Eternal Being-Man, from whom descends inventors, orators, thinkers, poets, saints . . . those who ransack earth . . . shall never find a bone

of him involving a date beyond that which it is possible to assign to the creation of Adam. The antiquity of man does not for us mean the antiquity of the man-ape, but of the man-Adam; not of the man-like monkey, but of the God-like man." 1

Nor, again, is it a serious objection to the special creation of man to say that man has no attribute which differs in kind from those of the inferior animals, because this is clearly absurd. We admit that, so far as can be ascertained, the mental powers and qualities of the brutes are also manifested in man. A dog loves its master, is faithful, honest, and anxious to please him; it may be admitted even that he worships him in a certain degree. Man recognizes in all these qualities very similar to his own; but the lowest type of man sees clearly enough that he possesses other attributes which are not shared by the brute. Man has abstract ideas of Truth, Beauty, Goodness, etc.; he is capable of reasoning about things which he can neither see nor feel; he is conscious of his personal identity and his place in nature; he can reflect, compare, anticipate, and generalize. If brutes can do any or all of these things, they can do so only in a very imperfect manner. The dog and the ape live for the Now, "Man has For-ever." 2

1 Primary Convictions.

2 A Grammarian's Funeral.

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MAN INCOMPLETE

The man who lives for the present hour only is not living up to his nature; the brute can do no other, he has no future to look to. While the beasts are stationary, man alone progresses, for

"Man partly is and wholly hopes to be."

CHAPTER IV

CONSCIENCE

BROWNING defines conscience as "the great beacon-light God sets in all," and declares

Be sure, he knows, in his conscience, more
Of what right is, than arrives at birth

In the best man's acts that we bow before;
This last knows better-true, but my fact is,
'Tis one thing to know, and another to practise

"2

and he argues that "the real God-function" (in other words, the work of the Holy Spirit) is to furnish a motive and injunction for practising what we already know. He finds such injunction and motive in the acceptance of the God in Christ; having taken Him to the heart as Lord of Life who lived and died, and that for the mere love's sake, the man who does so obtains a new truth. This is the effect of the work of the Holy Spirit promised to those who accept the

1 Strafford, Act IV., sc. ii.

2 Christmas Eve.