494 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



celerated changes in response to catas- 

 trophic disturbances in the environment. 

 Upon this point he remarks : 



" It is only through rapid movements of 

 the crusts and sudden climatic changes, due 

 either to terrestrial or cosmical causes, that 

 environment can have seriously interfered 

 with the evolution of life. These effects 

 would, I conceive, be 1. Extermination; 



2. Destruction of the biological equilibri- 

 um, thus violating natural selection ; and, 



3. Rapid morphological change on the part 

 of plastic species. When catastrophic 

 change burst in upon the ages of unilbrm- 

 ity, and sounded in the ear of every liv- 

 ing thing the words ' Change, or die,' plas- 

 ticity became the sole principle of salvation. 

 Plasticity, then, is that quality which, in 

 suddenly enforced physical change, is the 

 key to survival and prosperity. And the 

 survival of the plastic, that is, of the rapidly 

 and healthily modifiable during periods 

 when terrestrial revolution offers to sjjecies 

 the rigorous dilemma of prodigious change 

 or certain death, is a widely different princi- 

 ple from the survival of the fittest in a gen- 

 eral biological battle during terrestrial uni- 

 formity." 



THE LATEST CASES OF HERESY. 



The turning out of the Rev. Augus- 

 tus BLauvelt, of the Dutch Reformed 

 Church, by the Kingston tribunal, for 

 alleged heresy, is one of the things so 

 common nowadays as hardly to excite 

 notice, and we should probably have 

 heard little of this case had it not been 

 that the theological body saw fit to put 

 the trimmings on to the transaction in 

 a way that was not agreeable to the 

 reverend excommunicate. Not content 

 to depose Mr. Blauvelt from his charge 

 for non-conformity to the creed which 

 he had agreed to uphold, they thought 

 it desirable to give the proceeding an 

 extra touch, and so accused him of be- 

 traying his Master. Mr. Blauvelt says 

 that, when he found it impossible any 

 longer to accept the creed to which he 

 had subscribed, he would gladly have 

 resigned, but the polity of the society 

 did not allow it ; and when they found 

 it necessary to cut him off, he should 



have recognized the propriety of it, 

 and acquiesced without protest. But 

 when they proposed to " spot " him, and 

 fasten on him the label of Judas, to save 

 other denominations the trouble of 

 looking into his character and belief, if 

 they were so inclined, he did not assent, 

 but appealed to a higher organization. 

 He thought that, if such an outrage as 

 that was to be perpetrated, it had bet- 

 ter not be done in a corner, but by the 

 whole responsible body in a conspicuous 

 place, and where dissenters, if any there 

 should be, might have the credit of 

 favoring fair play.- In the final issue, 

 twenty-six men voted that the society 

 had nothing further to do than to ex- 

 scind the teacher who no longer taught 

 approvingly. But ninety men thought 

 differently, and seemed deeply to feel 

 that every fagot, thumb - screw, and 

 dungeon, of the last eighteen htmdred 

 years, and all the instruments and 

 agencies of religious conformity, would 

 be dishonored if this writer of inde- 

 pendent articles in Scriiner''s Magazine 

 did not get an extra kick at parting 

 all that the law allows in ISTY. 



But with these tactics of the Dutch 

 Reformed Church we are not much 

 concerned: what interests us far more 

 is the initial aspect of the case, or that 

 working of the theological polity which 

 at the outset binds the conscience and 

 fetters the thought of all who assume 

 the function of public teachers, in its 

 jurisdiction. The deeper question is 

 one of religious liberty, of the rights of 

 conscience, and the prerogative of in- 

 dependent expression. From this point 

 of view, other recent cases are of in- 

 terest. 



The Rev. Mr. Miller, of Princeton, 

 got into a dangerous way of thinking 

 for himself, about the creed of his 

 church, and, not being pious and politic 

 enough to crush his rising queries as 

 instigations of the devil, had the hon- 

 esty to announce some conclusions 

 about the mystery of the Trinity which 

 were unpalatable to the Sanhedrim to 



