Greek evolutionist recognized at once the fact of prolongation and its basis in the time which is required "for the adjustment of the complex physical and psychical activities to their environment." Further than this, however, Anaximander does not seem to have advanced, by far the most important part of Fiske's conclusions lying outside his thought.
A closer anticipation of Fiske has recently been found in a modern writer, Herder, whose views in other respects as well foreshadowed later genetic theories. Herder's doctrine has been described, and in part translated, by Professor Arthur O. Lovejoy,[1] who also traces back the theory to the poet Pope,[2] and from Pope, in germ, to one of Bolingbroke's " Fragments."
There are three passages in Herder's Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit in which the prolongation of infancy and its bearing on human culture are considered. The first two of these occur in Book IV, which has for its general subject the peculiar nature and destination of mankind. The fifth section of this book argues that man is organized at once for the most delicate health and the greatest endurance, and consequently to spread over all the earth. In the final paragraph the discussion culminates as follows:
"And, O, what motherly care and wisdom it was in the divine economy which determined also the life-stages and the longevity of our species! All living earthly creatures which have speedily to reach perfection, grow speedily as well; they ripen early and are quickly at life's goal. Man, planted upright like a tree of heaven, grows slowly. Like the elephant he remains longest in the womb; the years of his youth last longer, incomparably longer, than those of any animal. So nature prolonged as long as she could[3] his happy time for learning, for growing, for rejoicing in his life, and for enjoying it in the most innocent way. Many animals are mature in a few years, days, or even almost at the moment of their birth; but they are the more imperfect for it, and die the earlier. Man must learn the longest (am längsten lernen) because he has the most to learn, all with him depending on self-acquired skill, reason, and art. If afterwards his life should be shortened by the innumerable multitude of chances and dangers,—yet he has enjoyed a long youth free from care,
- ↑ Popular Science Monthly for August, 1904, pp. 332-3. The facthnd been noted independently by the present writer before the appearance of Lovejoy' s interesting papers, "Some Eighteenth Century Evolutionists," Pop. Sci. Monthly, July-Aug., 1904.
- ↑ Essay on Man, Epistle III.
- ↑ Die glückliche Zeit … zog die Natur se lang als sie sie ziehen könnte.
