EVOLUTION BOUNDED BY THEOLOGY. 149 



no more objection to that fact than to any other. Only in that case 

 God would be a known term in a known series of phenomena ; and 

 such a thing, we need hardly say, is scarcely conceivable by any mind 

 raised above the condition of barbarism. Ancient history, of course, 

 is full of just such definite statements. Romulus had the god Mars 

 for his father ; iEneas the goddess Aphrodite for his mother, and so 

 on ad infinitum. If Dr. Abbott means what he says about the human 

 race in a literal sense, he should point us to the historical record ; 

 and, it is needless to say, that record should not be one lending itself 

 to an infinity of " doubtful interpretations." Where is the record ? 

 But is it not perfectly manifest that, considered as the historical state- 

 ment of what happened thousands of years ago, it is utterly impos- 

 sible that the " universal consciousness " should bear witness to the 

 procreation the word is Dr. Abbott's of the first man by the God 

 of the book of Genesis ? It is said to be a wise child that knows its 

 own father ; and, as to a child's being conscious who its own father 

 is or was, the idea is simply irrational. It would seem as if Dr. 

 Abbott, while discouraging inquiry into the meaning of the opening 

 chapters of Genesis, desires, as far as possible, to save their credit, 

 and so claims that consciousness confirms the account they contain, 

 of the origin of mankind. Consciousness, however, does nothing of 

 the kind could not, by any possibility, do anything of the kind and 

 if the evolution philosophy should come into collision with the Mosaic 

 account of man's creation, it will have to deal, not with an affirmation 

 of the " universal consciousness," but simply with an ancient legend 

 hardened into a dogma. It has had some experience already in deal- 

 ing with such things, and need not quail at the prospect of another 

 encounter. It is really very idle thus to try to frighten away Science 

 from ground that it is entirely fitted to occupy. The effort irre- 

 sistibly reminds one of the attempts that savages make to avert an 

 eclipse by the vigorous beating of tom-toms. Unaffrighted by all 

 the tom-toms of the pulpit and the theological press, modern science 

 will press steadily forward, grasping at all facts, and reducing them, 

 as fast as possible, to order and harmony. It is already concerning 

 itself with the origin of mankind ; and has taught us more upon that 

 subject than all the theologies and mythologies put together. We 

 may claim to know now that primitive man had not a very profound 

 or very enlarged consciousness of a divine descent, and that any ideas 

 of divinity that he possessed were not inconsistent with a lively can- 

 nibalism. But it is science that teaches us this, and not the book of 

 Genesis, which starts man on his career with a respectable equipment 

 of theological and industrial knowledge. Dr. Abbott may count with 

 confidence upon a complete abstention on the part of science from any 

 interference with the devout experiences or exercises of any human 

 soul ; but, unless he wishes to see his counsels brought to naught, he 

 will himself refrain from any attempt to check science in its career 



