EDITOR'S TABLE. 



501 



in all its issues and implications. The 

 stage of uninquiring agreement has 

 been passed, discussion has elicited 

 a wide diversity of opinions, but the 

 ultimate tendency cannot fail to be tow- 

 ard a more enlightened harmony of 

 views. The critics of Prof. Tyndall of 

 course differ with him, but their dif- 

 ferences among each other are no less 

 marked, and their positions are often 

 mutually destructive of each other. It 

 will be instructive to call attention to 

 some of the indications of conflicting 

 opinion and converging advancement, 

 exemplified by the later and more care- 

 fully-considered criticisms. 



We have now before us three-ably- 

 written articles, called out by Prof. 

 Tyndall's address : one in Blackwood '* 

 Magazine for November, entitled 

 "Modern Scientific Materialism;" 

 another in the Penn Monthly for De- 

 cember, by E. C. Thompson, who aims 

 to answer the question, " What would 

 Tyndall be at?" and a third in the 

 January International Review, entitled 

 "Ideas in Nature overlooked by Dr. 

 Tyndall," which was contributed to 

 that periodical by Dr. McOosh. 



The first thing that strikes attention 

 in perusing these papers is their sub- 

 stantial agreement in regard to the 

 doctrine of Evolution. Dr. McCosh 

 says: "Two great scientific truths 

 have been established in this century. 

 One is the doctrine of the conservation 

 of energy. . . . the other great doc- 

 trine is that of development, acknowl- 

 edged as having an extent which was 

 not dreamed of till the researches of 

 Darwin were published." The writer 

 in the Penn Monthly is less explicit, 

 but he assumes the principle, and would 

 have no quarrel with it under a theistic 

 interpretation. In fact, it is this which 

 he contends for, and, without denying 

 the process, is only inclined to belittle 

 it. Of man he says : " His animal 

 nature may or may not have owed its 

 existence to the same process of Evolu- 

 tion that has brought forth each high- 



er species from that below it. We 

 think the question not worth a half of 

 one per cent, of the ink and paper that 

 have been wasted upon it. The motive 

 of many, if not of most, of the denials 

 might fairly be traced to a certain 

 Neoplatonist contempt of the animal 

 creation, which has no right to shelter 

 itself behind the Bible. Moses's story 

 of the origin of our animal nature is 

 humbling enough ; not less so if we con- 

 strue his words as declaring its direct 

 creation from the dust, than if we sup- 

 pose that it passed through more ele- 

 vated forms of existence before it at- 

 tained its uprightness of stature and 

 dignity of position. If Mr. Darwin 

 teaches us the reality of our kinship on 

 one side with the lower forms of life, 

 and stirs in our hearts the feelings that 

 that kinship should excite, he will not 

 the less, but the more, fit us to claim a 

 higher kinship with Him who giveth 

 grace to the humble." Friend Thomp- 

 son may be unhesitatingly " counted 

 in " on the Evolution question, for he 

 has evidently "conquered his preju- 

 dices " on the point of a low animal 

 ancestry, and when this is done all the 

 rest is comparatively easy. The writer 

 in Blackwood's Magazine, so far from 

 finding difficulty with the doctrine, takes 

 to it admiringly. He says: " We have 

 no quarrel with the evolutionary hy- 

 pothesis in itself. It is an inspiring con- 

 ception to look upon Nature in all its 

 departments as intimately linked to- 

 gether from ' primordial germ ' to the 

 most fully-developed organism from 

 its rudest speck to its subtlest symmetry 

 of form, or most delicate beauty of col- 

 or. The idea of growth and vital affin- 

 ity is, we readily grant, a higher idea 

 than that of mere technic after the 

 manner of men. There is no call upon 

 us to defend the imperfect analogies by 

 which past generations may have pict- 

 ured to themselves the works of Na- 

 ture." 



This is a large concession, and indi- 

 cates an immense step forward in man's 



