14 The Period from 1861 to 1870 



Tenn. At the same time the distinguished President of Columbia College, N. Y., Prof. 

 Barnard, was appointed to preside at that meeting. In the meantime, the great rebellion 

 breaking out, the meeting was not, of course, called together, as that place was not 

 either a fit or a safe one for loyal members to visit. It was also judged proper that our 

 meetings should be in abeyance, as our minds and our time were occupied by duties of 

 the utmost importance in the assistance of the restoration of that peace which has 

 caused our beloved Union four eventful years of war. 



F. A. P. Barnard, retiring president at the meeting held at Burlington, 

 Vermont, in August, 1867, was not present at the meeting and did not de- 

 liver his address until the following year. However, the president for the 

 meeting, J. S. Newberry (geology), delivered his retiring address which 

 normally would have come at the following meeting. In it are evidences of 

 the profound effects that were gradually being produced by the publication 

 of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859 (vol. 16, pp. 1-15.) : 



Although the progress of the age to which I have referred has been a matter of 

 wonder and delight to all students of humanity and civilization, many of our best men 

 have been somewhat alarmed and dizzied by it ; and, while accepting the achievements 

 of modern industry and thought as full of present good and future promise, they are 

 not a little concerned lest our railroad speed of progress should lead to its legitimate 

 consequences, a final crash — not of things material, but of those of infinitely more 

 value— of opinions and of faith. As often as it is boasted that this is pre-eminently an 

 age of progress, that boast is met by the inevitable "but" (which qualifies our praise of 

 all things earthly) "it is equally an age of scepticism." For the truth of this assertion 

 the proof is nearly as palpable as of the other ; and in view of the ruthlessness with 

 which the man of the present removes ancient landmarks and profanes shrines hallowed 

 by the faith of centuries, it is not surprising that many of the good and wise among us 

 should deplore a liberty of thought leading, in their view, inevitably to license, and 

 mourn over this wide-spread scepticism as an evil and inscrutable disease that has 

 fallen upon the minds and hearts of men. . . . 



It would be impossible for any one to discuss in a fair and intelligent manner the 

 great question of the origin of species, in anything less than a bulky volume. The 

 merest mention is, therefore, all we can give to it at the present time. Although the 

 appearance of Darwin's book on the Origin of Species communicated a distinct shock 

 to the prevalent creeds, both religious and scientific, the hypothesis which it suggests, 

 though now for the first time distinctly formularized, was by no means new ; as it en- 

 ters largely into the less clearly stated development theories of Oken, Lamarck, De 

 Maillet, and the author of the "Vestiges of Creation." There was this difference, how- 

 ever, that in the developmental theories of the older writers the element of evolution 

 had a place; the process of development had its main-spring in an inherent growth, or 

 tendency, such as produces the evolution of the successive parts in plant-life, while, 

 according to Darwin, the beautiful symmetry and adaptation which we see in nature is 

 simply the form assumed by plastic matter in the mould of external circumstances. 



Although this Darwinian hypothesis is looked upon by many as striking at the root 

 of all vital faith, and is the bete noire of all those who deplore and condemn the mate- 

 rialistic tendency of modern science, still the purity of life of the author of the "Origin 

 of Species," his enthusiastic devotion to the study of truth, the industry and acumen 

 which have marked his researches, the candor and caution with which his suggestions 



