St. George Jackson Mivart

Mivart met Huxley in 1859, and was initially a close follower and a believer in natural selection. "Even as a professor he continued to attending Huxley's lectures ... they became close friends, dining together and arranging family visits."[1] However, Huxley was always strongly anti-Catholic, and no doubt this attitude led to Mivart becoming disenchanted with him. Once disenchanted, he lost little time in reversing on the subject of natural selection. In short, he now believed that a higher teleology was compatible with evolution.

As to "natural selection", I accepted it completely and in fact my doubts & difficulties were first excited by attending Prof. Huxley's lectures at the School of Mines.[1]

Even before Mivart's publication of On the Genesis of Species in 1871, he had published his new ideas in various periodicals.[7] Huxley,[8] Lankester, and Flower had come out against his ideas, although O'Leary (2007) reports that "their initial reaction to Genesis of Species was tolerant and impersonal".[9]

Though admitting evolution in general, Mivart denied its applicability to the human intellect (a view also taken by Wallace). His views as to the relationship between human nature and intellect and animal nature in general were given in his books Nature and Thought[10] and Origin of Human Reason.[11][5]

Mivart was someone Darwin took seriously; Darwin prepared a point-by-point refutation which appeared in the sixth edition of Origin of Species. One of Mivart's criticisms to which Darwin responded was a perceived failure of natural selection to explain the incipient stages of useful structures. Taking the eye as an example, Darwin was able to show many stages of light sensitivity and eye development in the animal kingdom as proof of the utility of less-than-perfect sight (argument by intermediate stages). Another was the supposed inability of natural selection to explain cases of parallel evolution, to which Huxley responded that the effect of natural selection in places with the same environment would tend to be similar.

Mivart's hostile review of the Descent of Man in the Quarterly Review aroused fury from his former intimates, including Darwin himself, who described it as "grossly unfair". Mivart had quoted Darwin by shortening sentences and omitting words, causing Darwin to write: "Though he means to be honourable, he is so bigoted that he cannot act fairly."[12] Relationships between the two men were near breaking point. In response, Darwin arranged for the reprinting of a pamphlet by Chauncey Wright, previously issued in the US, which severely criticised Genesis of Species. Wright had, under Darwin's guidance, clarified what was, and was not, "Darwinism".[12]^{: 353–356}

The quarrel reached a climax when Mivart lost his usual composure over what should have been a minor incident: In 1873, George Darwin (Charles' son) published a short article in The Contemporary Review suggesting that divorce should be made easier in cases of cruelty, abuse, or mental disorder. Mivart reacted with horror, using phrases like "hideous sexual criminality" and "unrestrained licentiousness". Huxley wrote a counter-attack, and both Huxley and Darwin broke off connections with Mivart.[13] Huxley blackballed Mivart's attempt to join the Athenaeum Club.[12]^: 355

In 1892 and 1893 Mivart published three articles on "Happiness in Hell" in the journal Nineteenth Century.[14] Mivart proposed that the punishments of hell were not eternal, and that hell is compatible with some kind of happiness.

These articles were placed on the Index Expurgatorius. This was the first official action of the Catholic Church against Mivart but it "had nothing to do either with evolution or science."[2] Later articles in January 1900 ("The Continuity of Catholicism" and "Scripture and Roman Catholicism" in The Nineteenth Century, and "Some Recent Catholic Apologists" in The Fortnightly Review) led to his being placed under interdict by Cardinal Vaughan. These last articles were written, by Mivart's own admission, in a provocative tone so that the authorities would have to act. In them, reversing his previous stance, he challenged the authority of the Church, concluding that the Bible and Catholic doctrine could not be reconciled with science.

"Without attempting to pass judgment on Mivart’s final stance, we can say that his attitude was not solely or principally determined by scientific motives and, more concretely, that evolution did not occupy a determining role in it."[2]

The report of the consultor of the Holy Office dealing with Mivart's case significantly does not mention evolution.[2]

• On the Genesis of Species, Macmillan & Co., 1871.
• An Examination of Mr. Herbert Spencer's Psychology (Dublin 1874–80).
• Lessons in Elementary Anatomy, 1873.
• The Common Frog, Macmillan and Co., 1874 [1st Pub. in Nature Series, 1873].
• Man and Apes: An Exposition of Structural Resemblances and Differences Bearing upon Questions of Affinity and Origin. London: Robert Hardwicke, 1873.
• "One Point of Controversy with the Agnostics," in Manning, ed. Essays on Religion and Literature, Third Series, Longmans, Green & Co., 1874.
• Lessons from Nature, 1876.
• Contemporary Evolution, Henry S. King & Co., 1876.
• Address to the Biological Section of the British Association, 1879.
• The Cat: An Introduction to the Study of Backboned Animals, Especially Mammals, John Murray, 1881.
• Nature and Thought: An Introduction to a Natural Philosophy, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1882.
• A Philosophical Catechism, 1884.
• On Truth: A Systematic Inquiry, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1889.
• The Origin of Human Reason, Being an Examination of Recent Hypotheses Concerning it, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1889.
• Dogs, Jackals, Wolves and Foxes: Monograph of the Canidæ, Taylor & Francis, for R.H. Porter and Dulau & Co., 1890.
• Introduction Générale à l'Etude de la Nature: Cours Professé à l'Université de Louvain, Louvain and Paris, 1891.
• Birds: The Elements of Ornithology, Taylor & Francis, 1892.
• Essays and Criticisms, Vol. 2, 1892.
• Types of Animal Life, 1893.
• Introduction to the Elements of Science. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1894.
• The Helpful Science, Harper & Brothers, 1895.
• Castle and Manor, 1900.
• A Monograph of the Lories, or Brush-tongued Parrots, H. R. Porter, 1896.
• The Groundwork of Science: A Study of Epistemology, John Murray, 1898.

• Under the Ban: A Correspondence between Dr. St. George Mivart and Herbert Cardinal Vaughan. New York: Tucker Publishing Co., 1900.
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ape" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 160.
• Mivart, St. George Jackson; Gadow, Hans Friedrich (1911). "Rattlesnake" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 919–920.