"Symbiosis or Death": - Rhodes University

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conundrum also plagues Livingstone and is explored in the poem “An Evolutionary
Nod to God, Station 4”. Silver notes that most Darwinists believe that life on this planet
originated by chance, although this is not an official part of the theory of evolution (271);
but also says: “It is essential to realize that evolution is an automatic process; it involves
no ‘will’ on the part of the organism involved, and the occurrence and type of a given
variation … is governed by chance” (273). Silver adds that: “Evolution has been taking
place over a time scale that is so huge as to be beyond our ability to grasp” (274).
The aforementioned poems deal directly with the concept of evolution and “Low
Tide at Station 20" (48) alludes to it. This poem ends: “I am a mere excrescence / on a
giant’s spine dreamed up / by seas still veiled to fettered man”. The “giant’s spine” refers
to the myth of Adamastor and, therefore, the continent of Africa, while the “seas” are
Livingstone’s shorthand for his belief in a Creative Principle (the forming force of
nature). These “veiled” seas allude to the primeval soup in which the Earth’s life-forms
originated. The poet sees himself as an ecological disfigurement “fettered” by his
incomprehension of humanity’s evolutionary history and origins. Livingstone’s
admission of ignorance is evident in the poem’s unanswered question: “ARE THE
CRE/A/TED PART OF THE / CRE/A/TOR OR SUN/DERED ON CRE/A/TION?”
(lines 16-17). Charles Darwin problematises this position in his autobiography:
Another source of conviction in the existence of God, connected with the reason
and not with the feelings, impresses me as having much more weight. This
follows from the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this
immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capacity of looking far
backwards and far into futurity, as a result of blind chance or necessity. When
thus reflecting I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind
in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist.
…
The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must
be content to remain an Agnostic. (92-3 and 94)
Livingstone cannot rationally justify his belief in a Creative Principle. He referred to this
dilemma as his “running war with the Almighty” (Robbins 1992: 52). The question in
“Low Tide” can be linked to the fact that evolution only explains humankind’s
orthogenesis, but does not offer a teleological answer (see Mayr 49, 66-7). “Low Tide at
Station 20” marks the final stages of Livingstone’s journey, for the poem is placed
towards the end of the collection.