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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



A GREAT SCIIOLAR OX EVOLUTION. 



AS many of our readers are doubt- 

 less aware, the " Fortnightly Re- 

 view " has lately opened its pages to a 

 discussion of the present relations be- 

 tween theology and the general thought 

 of the age. The subject has been ap- 

 proached by several writers from differ- 

 ent points of view ; and we can not but 

 believe that the conflict of opinions will 

 result in some solid gain to the cause of 

 truth. Meantime we are interested in 

 the criticism which the Rev. Dr. Bur- 

 gon, Dean of Chichester, one of the dis- 

 putants, in replying to Canon Freraan- 

 tle, whose article was reproduced in our 

 last number, has bestowed on the doc- 

 trine of evolution. Dr. Burgon is, we 

 believe, one of the highest authorities on 

 the textual criticism of the Scriptures 

 now to be found in the Church of Eng- 

 land. He has devoted a long life, he him- 

 self tells us, exclusively to that study. 

 One would suppose that a man con- 

 scious of having given all his attention 

 to one line of thought and research 

 would be diffident about his compe- 

 tency in another and widely different 

 one. Not so with Dr. Burgon, how- 

 ever; he is quite satisfied that he is as 

 well able to deal with the doctrine of 

 evolution as with the age of a Greek 

 manuscript ; and in the April " Fort- 

 nightly " he tells us just what he thinks 

 on that subject in very emphatic and un- 

 mistakable terms. It is, he affirms, " ut- 

 terly unscientific," a" wild hypothesis," 

 "the merest impertinence," "the veri- 

 est foolishness." Does the reverend 

 gentleman advance any arguments in 

 support of these powerfully expressed 

 opinions ? Yes ; and one of them is, 

 that "man is v ever found at all in a 

 fossil state." So convinced is the rev- 

 erend doctor that this is a great truth, 

 that he himself calls in the aid of ital- 

 ics to give it emphasis. Yet, had he 



opened the most elementary contempo- 

 rary treatise on geology, he would have 

 found that abundant fossil remains of 

 man, and abundant traces also of his 

 works, have been found in association 

 with the bones of now extinct animals. 

 The other arguments used by the doc- 

 tor against the theory of evolution are 

 drawn principally from the book of 

 Genesis. He insists that man has not 

 yet been quite six thousand years upon 

 the earth, and quotes as an authority 

 on that question Clinton, the author of 

 " Fasti Hellenici." On the subject of 

 miracles he has nothing better to tell 

 us than that they are strictly analogous 

 to human action in the realm of Na- 

 ture: ergo, because man finds that he 

 can do certain things by availing him- 

 self of natural laws, he must be ready 

 to believe whatever may be told him of 

 things done in apparent independence 

 of all laws. 



Dr. Burgon's article will do good. 

 The extreme ignorance he manifests on 

 scientific questions, and the unbounded 

 confidence with which he nevertheless 

 undertakes to discuss them, will open 

 the eyes of many as to the pressing 

 need for the scientific education of the 

 clergy. A knowledge of manuscripts is 

 all very well in its way; but a man who 

 has to deal with the minds and hearts 

 of other men, needs more than that. 

 He needs to know the times he lives 

 in, and the influences that are molding 

 contemporary thought. Imagine, for a 

 moment, a clergyman approaching an 

 intelligent parishioner who is studying 

 carefully the geological elements of the 

 question as to the antiquity of man, and 

 imagine that clergyman advising the 

 parishioner to put aside his Lyell or his 

 Geikie, and study Clinton's " Fasti" in- 

 stead! Could a more absolutely absurd 

 situation be conceived ? Yet this is pre- 

 cisely what the learned Dean Burgon 



