THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



FEBRUARY, 1894. 



NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 

 XIX. FROM CREATION TO EVOLUTION. 

 By ANDREW DICKSON WPIITE, LL.D., L.H.D., 



EX-PRESIDENT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 



PART I. 



THE VISIBLE UNIVERSE. 



ABOVE the portal of the beautiful cathedral of Freiburg may 

 be seen one of the most interesting of thought fossils. A 

 medieval sculptor, working into stone various theological concep- 

 tions of his time, has there represented the creation. The Al- 

 mighty, in human form, sits benignly making and placing upon 

 the heavens, like wafers upon paper, sun, moon, and planets ; and, 

 at the center, platter-like and largest of all the earth. 



The furrows of thought on the Creator's face show that he is 

 obliged to contrive ; the masses of muscle upon his arms show 

 that he is obliged to toil ; naturally, then, the sculptors and paint- 

 ers of the mediaeval and early modern period frequently repre- 

 sented him as the writers whose conceptions they embodied had 

 done : as, on the seventh day, weary after thought and toil, enjoy- 

 ing well-earned repose and the plaudits of the hosts of heaven. 



In this fossilized thought at Freiburg, and in others revealing 

 the same idea in sculpture, painting, and engraving during the 

 middle ages and the two centuries following, culminated a devel- 

 opment of human thought which had existed through thousands 

 of years, and which has controlled the world's thinking until our 

 own time. 



Its beginnings lie far back in human history ; we find them 

 among the early records of nearly all the great civilizations, and 



TOL. XLIT. 33 



