Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885, June 01, 1877, Page 165, Image 15

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    "--'-' --- '
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