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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1877)
"--'-' --- ' D.vinviNisM. IJW wheels. There are curtain laws in the economy of nature which must be fol lowed If wo wish to get liie most out of any material; ami we must have a very poor conception of Deity, if we think he does not recognize the same laws in deal ing with his creatures that he instituted to govern the universe. Some accept this theory becaurc of Iho long array of names of eminent men who accept it, or at least look on it with favor. Wo always find if a man is advocating any theory, he will make a parade of all the names he can, whether they are ac live or passive supporters of his views, and any new theory like this is accepted without looking at the other side of the question, by a certain class of men who are ready to grasp at anything that will bring their names before the public. 1 have a profound respect for a truly scientific man, but a vain sciolist is a consummate fraud. The Academy of Sciences at Paris took a largo slab of mar ble, which, if placed erect, would have .stood for ages without deviating u thous. andth pari of an inch from the pcrpeudicu-' lar, and by laying it across a table, with a few feet projecting without support, it toon commenced to bend from its own weight. Thus it is with the finest intel lect. If developed in a one-sided man nor it becomes warped. Because a man is educated in one brunch of M-icm-c, it is no reason that we must accept his judgment on all points. Some one has said, that an education is like climbing a high mountain; it gives us a view of all the surrounding country. I grant it givd a dim outline for a great distance, but all we can minutely describe is a few rods on each side of the path of ascent; our view from the top may assist us in choosing the best patli for our next ascent, but if we wish to describe the oth er side of the mountain, we must retrace our steps, and climb from the bottom to the lop again. Then in studying a com plicated question like this we should con sult good authorities on all the different points that bear on it, and not permit ivn man to dictate what lie thinks are the facts. In looking around us on nature wc find millions of forms of animal and vegetable life. The advocates of the development theory claim, that three hundred million' years would account for all the changes; when they made this assertion, they thought Geology was all they had to contend with, so they would make the time long enough to obliterate all trace? of the connecting link. Now mathematicians come in and with Sir Win, Thompson at their head, prove mathematically that it is less than twenty million years since theearthcoolcd sufficiently to allow of any kind of life on its surface. In our ex pcriencc since man kept any record; wc have not seen a single change from one genus to another. Man with the aid of I science has done wonders in cultivating, and improving animal and vegetable life, but all he can do will not change a peach to an apple, or a cat to a dog. Mr. D.irwiu acknowledges, that he finds a stumbling-block in Geology, that so far the chain is broken, but he thinks there are pages in the Geological world that have not been opened yet; but when they are, will sustain him in his position. We find in the Geological recoid that by some great physical change, all the animal life, at places, has been destroyed, and entirely different remains are found just above them showing that it had been rcpeopled by a new race; while in the deep sea, which was not affected by the changes we yet find the same species of shell fish that first inhabited tho infant world Hugh Miller, certainly as acute an ob server, and as clear a thinker, as Mr. Dar win, who spent his life studying Geology, and more especially fossil fishes, says, the fishes of tho early ages were as perfect us those of the present; and he emphatic ally, says, there is no proof in Geology of any development, but the proof is all the other way, that each species was as per fect at its first appearance as at ibj final