EDITOR'S TABLE. 



6\j 



so ignorant as he pretends ; as others, 

 however, are also asking for explana- 

 tions, we will consider his most impor- 

 tant points. 



We had. remarked: "A theory is 

 said to be demonstrated when it brings 

 all the known facts into agreement, ex- 

 plains them, excludes all other interpre- 

 tations, and is consistent with itself and. 

 all that is understood, of the ways of 

 Nature." Dr. Deems asks: "Did Prof. 

 Huxley 'bring all the known facts into 

 agreement ? ' Did he show that his 

 theory was ' consistent with all that is 

 understood, of the ways of Nature ? ' 

 Did he not tacitly admit that he was 

 not able to show that his theory was 

 'in agreement' with what physical as- 

 tronomy teaches us of the ' ways of Na- 

 ture ? ' " 



Prof. Huxley certainly made no such 

 admission in any form or degree, and 

 we are at a loss to see how his utterance 

 or the report of it can be so construed. 

 Possibly it is because he dismissed the 

 subject somewhat curtly, which was in- 

 terpreted into an unwillingness to face 

 it, accompanied by the further infer- 

 ence that he was unable to do so. But 

 it is to be remembered that the ques- 

 tion was thrust upon him by editorials 

 in leading newspapers and by private 

 communications, and was not embraced 

 in the plan of his argument, to which 

 he had not half time enough to do jus- 

 tice. He was, therefore, compelled, to 

 be brief; but the case was squarely 

 met. It had been objected that evolu- 

 tion cannot be true because physical 

 astronomy proves that there has not 

 been time enough since the cooling of 

 the earth for the slow processes of life- 

 unfolding to have taken place. To this 

 Prof. Huxley replied, first, that he had. 

 already considered the subject in an 

 address before the Geological Society 

 of which he was president, and had 

 showed that the "teachings of physical 

 astronomy " as against geological time 

 are not sound ; and he, moreover, knew 

 that this address was accessible to all 



interested, as it had been circulated by 

 thousands in this country in his vol- 

 ume of " Lay Sermons." Is this to be 

 construed into inability to maintain his 

 theory against the objections raised in 

 the name of physical astronomy ? 



Secondly, Prof. Huxley replied that, 

 granting the validity of the case made 

 out by the " physical astronomers " 

 (which, of course, he did not grant), 

 even then the biologist has little reason 

 to trouble himself about the result. 

 His proof of evolution comes from an- 

 other source, and demonstrates to him 

 that there must assuredly have been 

 time enough for its occurrence. It has 

 been customary to affirm that the evo- 

 lution of life has proceeded at a very 

 slow rate, and required vast periods of 

 time; but what is the basis of the as- 

 sumption ? It is that the series of liv- 

 ing forms is distributed through exten- 

 sive deposits of stratified rocks which 

 the geologist says it has taken vast pe- 

 riods of time to make, and, as the course 

 of life-changes has been coeval with the 

 course of strata-deposition, if the geolo- 

 gist is right, evolution must have been 

 slow. But, if the geologist revises his 

 data either way, the biologist will sim- 

 ply accept the result, and occupy the 

 time. He only says: "There, in the 

 vast succession of rocks, is our proof 

 of evolution as a matter of fact ; the 

 geologist and the physicist may set- 

 tle the question of time between them, 

 and inform us, if they can, how long 

 it has taken." And what is there 

 here of tacit concession that his case 

 was weak as against the " teachings of 

 physical astronomy ? " 



Let us now briefly examine that 

 case, and see how much occasion for 

 anxiety it gives to the adherents of the 

 doctrine of evolution. "The teachings 

 of physical astronomy " here referred 

 to mean the mathematical and physical 

 speculations of Sir "William Thomson 

 in regard to the rate of cooling of the 

 sun and of the earth, the retardation 

 of the earth's rotation by the drag and 



