EDITOR'S TABLE. 



237 



The Kev. Dr. William M. Taylor, in 

 a letter to the Tribune, takes up Prof. 

 Huxley on this ground, and is quite 

 shocked at his logical incapacity. The 

 following is a sample passage from his 

 communication, and a very fair exam- 

 ple, besides, of the sort of comment 

 which his lectures have elicited : 



" Indeed, to affirm, as he did, that evo- 

 lution stands exactly on the same basis as 

 the Copernican theory of the motions of the 

 heavenly bodies, is an assertion so astound- 

 ing that we can only ' stand by and admire ' 

 the marvelous effrontery with which it was 

 made. That theory rests on facts, presently 

 occurring before our eyes, and treated in 

 the manner of mathematical precision. It 

 is not an inference made by somebody from 

 a record of facts, existing in far-off and pre- 

 historic, possibly also prehuman ages. It 

 is verified every day by occurrences which 

 happen according to its laws. But where 

 do we see evolution going on to-day? If 

 evolution rests upon a basis as sure as as- 

 tronomy, why do we not see one species 

 passing into another now, even as we see 

 the motions of the pl'anets through the 

 heavens? . . . We know that astronomy is 

 true, because we are verifying its conclu- 

 sions every day of our lives on land and on 

 sea. "We set our clocks according to its con- 

 clusions, and navigate our ships in accord- 

 ance with its predictions, but where have 

 we anything approaching even infinitesi- 

 mally to this, with evolution? " 



The author of this passage is said to 

 be a man of eminence and ability. That 

 may be, but he certainly has not won 

 his distinction either in the fields of 

 logic, astronomy, or biology. When a 

 man undertakes to state the evidence 

 of a theory, and gives us proofs that 

 equally sustain an opposite theory, we 

 naturally conclude that he does not 

 know what he is talking about. This 

 is very much Dr. Taylor's predicament. 

 In trying to contrast the evidence for 

 evolution with the demonstrative proofs 

 of the Copernican theory, he cites facts 

 that are not only as good, but far bet- 

 ter, to prove the truth of its antagonist, 

 the Ptolemaic theory. 



Dr. Taylor talks as if the Coperni- 

 can theory is something that anybody 



can see by looking up into the sky, but 

 the case is far from being so simple. 

 The Copernican theory of the planetary 

 motions assumes that they take place 

 around the sun as their centre ; the 

 Ptolemaic theory taught that the earth 

 is the stationary centre of the system, 

 and that the sun, moon, and planets, 

 revolve around it. We must not forget 

 that the Ptolemaic theory was the fun- 

 damental conception of astronomy, and 

 guided its scientific development for 

 two thousand years. It was based on 

 extensive, prolonged, and accurate ob- 

 servations ; was elucidated and con- 

 firmed by mathematics geometry, and 

 trigonometry ; and was verified by con- 

 firming the power of astronomic pre- 

 vision. The planetary motions were 

 traced and resolved on this theory with 

 great skill and correctness, elaborate 

 tables being constructed which repre- 

 sented their irregularities and inequali- 

 ties, so that their future positions could 

 be foretold, and conjunctions, opposi- 

 tions, and eclipses, predicted. It em- 

 bodied a great amount of exact knowl- 

 edge, and was capable of taking in 

 and preserving all the new results of 

 the labors of a long series of Greek, 

 Latin, Arabian, and modern European 

 astronomers. Dr. Whewell says of it : 

 " In this sense, therefore, the Hippar- 

 chian theory was a real and indestructi- 

 ble truth, which was not rejected, and 

 replaced by different truths, but was 

 adopted and incorporated into every 

 succeeding astronomical theory, and 

 which can never cease to be one of the 

 most important and fundamental parts 

 of our astronomical knowledge." 



Copernicus, then, did not abolish 

 but rather revised the old astronomy. 

 He accepted the whole system of eccen- 

 trics and epicycles, and, so far as plan- 

 etary motions are concerned, he simply 

 recentred the solar system. He showed 

 that the evidence in favor of that view 

 preponderated, and his theory was a 

 victory of refined, remote, and indirect 

 investigation. 



