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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



repeats itself." It belongs to the literature 

 of reconciliation of religion and science, and 

 does over again what had been so often 

 done before that its repetition should be 

 superfluous that is, if people were not so 

 stupid. 



When the laws of planetary motion were 

 discovered, devout Bible-believers took the 

 alarm and denounced the doctrine as destruc- 

 tive of religion. A war arose between the 

 new science and the old Church, which was 

 at length composed by a reinterpretation of 

 Scripture passages, and everybody has be- 

 come reconciled except Brother Jaspar. 



But no sooner was the Bible brought 

 into harmony with astronomy, than the same 

 difficulty broke out in another place. Ge- 

 ologists found that the earth and the life 

 upon it are a good deal older than have 

 been supposed ; but this was vehemently de- 

 clared to be in conflict with the text of the 

 old Hebrew oracles. The geologists were 

 charged with being subverters of religion, 

 and there was a long battle about it. But 

 a way was discovered to reconcile Genesis 

 with the new views of the earth's history, 

 and the alarmed believers found not only 

 that they had been a good deal more scared 

 than hurt, but, greatly to their gratification, 

 that Moses was the true founder of geologi- 

 cal science. 



One would think that by this time some- 

 thing might have been learned, and very 

 much indeed has been learned, but there are 

 multitudes of religious people who are still 

 exactly where stood the religious people of 

 three centuries ago. Another religious panic 

 is upon us, from the same old cause. Sci- 

 ence has proclaimed evolution as an estab- 

 lished law of nature, and the believers in 

 the killing letter of Scripture see another 

 crusade of infidelity which, cloakinp; itself 

 with the name of science, aims at the sub- 

 version cf Christianity. Dr. Brunton's work 

 crows out of this crisis, and is devoted to 

 the old task of reconciliation. 



There arc many nominally religious peo- 

 ple upon whom this sort of labor is quite 

 thrown away. There must be some sincere 

 solicitude for truth before there can be much 

 concern about its agreements. It is not to 

 be expected that those who are religions in 

 obedience to the requirements of Mrs. Grun- 

 dy will greatly trouble themselves about the 



conflicts of their faith. Then there arc 

 others, not wanting perhaps in sincerity, to 

 whom religion is a mere safeguard against 

 future life-dangers, and these, of course, will 

 care little about the relations of their relig- 

 ion to knowledge. They have nothing to 

 reconcile, nothing to be explained away. 

 They have merely a system of supernatural- 

 ism to be professed, with divers accompani- 

 ments, as a means of escaping from ever- 

 lasting perdition. But there are still many 

 conscientious people who, having arrived at 

 no general principles to govern the case, are 

 perplexed at the disagreements between the 

 accepted tenets of religious belief and the 

 progressive doctrines of science. Dr. Brun- 

 ton's book is written for this order of minds, 

 and with reference to the new issues be- 

 tween the Bible and science which have 

 arisen in our own age. But it is best to 

 let the author speak for himself in regard 

 to his purpose. He says : " Many people 

 consider the doctrine of evolution, or, as it 

 is not unf requently termed, Darwinism, as 

 necessarily atheistic, and regard it with hor- 

 ror mingled with fear. They look upon it 

 with horror, because they think that its 

 spread will be injurious to religion and mo- 

 rality ; and they fear it, because they see that 

 every year its adoption is becoming more 

 general, and that, notwithstanding their dis- 

 like to it, they are unable to stop its prog- 

 ress. In addition to this, some have a lurk- 

 ing dread that the doctrine may be true, 

 and that they may by-and-by be forced, 

 in spite of themselves, to acknowledge its 

 truth, and to give up the cherished relig- 

 ious beliefs which have been their joy and 

 strength. Feelings of this sort induce some 

 people to remain willfully ignorant both of 

 what the doctrine of evolution really is, and 

 the arguments that may be adduced in sup- 

 port of it, while others refuse to see the 

 force of the arguments ; and others, again, 

 are rendered most unhappy by their inability 

 to deny their truth. The objects of the pres- 

 ent work are to give a brief and popular 

 sketch of the data on which the doctrine is 

 founded, and to show that instead of being 

 atheistic it is the very reverse, and is no 

 more opposed to the Biblical account of the 

 creation than those geological doctrines re- 

 garding the structure and formation of the 

 earth's crust which were once regarded as 



