A CENTURY OF SCIENCE
And Other Essays
BY
JOHN FISKE
Out of the shadows of night
The world rolls into light:
It is daybreak everywhere.
Longfellow.
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1899
COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY JOHN FISKE
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
DEDICATORY EPISTLE TO THOMAS SERGEANT PERRY,
PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE KEIO GIJUKU, AT TOKYO.
Dear Tom,—It has long been my wish to make you the patron saint ortutelar divinity of some book of mine, and it has lately occurred to methat it ought to be a book of the desultory and chatty sort that wouldremind you, in your present exile at the world's eastern rim, of themany quiet evenings of old, when, over a tankard of mellow October andpipe of fragrant Virginia, while Yule logs crackled blithely and themusic of pattering sleet was upon the window-pane, we used to roam infancy through the universe and give free utterance to such thoughts,sedate or frivolous, as seemed to us good. I dare say the present volumemay serve as an epitome of many such old-time sessions of sweetdiscourse, which I trust we shall by and by repeat and renew.
But there is one link of association which in my mind especiallyconnects you with the present occasion.[Pg iv] My theory of the causes andeffects of the prolongation of human infancy, with reference to theevolution of man, was first published in the "North American Review" forOctober, 1873, when you were the editor of that periodical. The article,which was entitled "The Progress from Brute to Man," was made up of twochapters of my "Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy" (part ii. chaps, xxi.,xxii.), which was published a year later, in October, 1874. The value ofthe theory therein set forth was at once recognized by many leadingnaturalists. In the address of Vice-President Edward Morse, before theAmerican Association, at its meeting at Buffalo in 1876, my theoryreceives extended notice as one of the most important contributions yetmade to the Doctrine of Evolution; and it is declared that I have given"for the first time a rational explanation of the origin and persistenceof family relations, and thence communal [i. e., clan] relations, and,finally, of society."[1]
Uncontrollable circumstances have prevented my giving to the furtherelaboration of this infancy theory the time and attention which itdeserves[Pg v] and demands; but in my little book, "The Destiny of Man,"published in 1884, I gave a popular exposition of it which has made itwidely known in all English-speaking countries and on the continent ofEurope, as well as among your worthy Japanese neighbours, Tom, who havedone me the honour to translate some of my books into their vernacular.The theory has become still further popularized through having furnishedthe starting-point for some of the most characteristic speculations ofthe late Henry Drummond. In these and other ways my infancy theory hasso far entered into the current thoughts of the present age that peoplehave (naturally enough) begun to forget with whom it originated. Forexample, in the recent book, "Through Nature to God," while criticisinga remark of Huxley's, I found it desirable