4i6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



at a given moment, he attributes to 

 tliem wrong effects, his further observa- 

 tions will in due time cure him of his 

 error. Thus the errors of the evolu- 

 tionists are sure to be discovered and 

 corrected, for they consist, and can 

 consist, only in wrong suppositions as 

 to the relations between material phe- 

 nomena — phenomena which are open 

 to the study of all, and which have no 

 habit of hiding themselves behind a 

 veil of mystery. But what remedy is 

 there for the errors of superstition ? 

 What can we say to the man who be- 

 lieves in the uncaused, to whom the 

 universe is full of facts that bear on 

 them no stamp save that of arbitrary 

 will? His superstition is a pillar round 

 which reason will chase him in vain. 



To say that every vegetable and ani- 

 mal species is the special result of a dis- 

 tinct divine fiat is to put a veto upon 

 all scientific inquiry in the region of 

 biology. But to-day such a veto comes 

 too late. The world has learned too 

 much under the guidance of the doc- 

 trine of evolution, too many regions of 

 knowledge have been fertilized by it, 

 too many individual minds have found 

 in it a never-failing spring of instruction 

 and intellectual stimulation, for any 

 overthrow, or even any obscuration, of 

 the idea to be possible. What, we ask, 

 have its opponents to teach ? They are 

 compelled to recognize the general prin- 

 ciple of evolution in history, geology, 

 and many other fields of research, and, 

 so far as they do, their intelligence has 

 free scope. But what do they teach 

 instead of it in the field of biology ? 

 Absolutely nothing. They simply draw 

 a line and say, " Here begin wonder, 

 miracle, mystery, all that is arbitrary 

 and thought-confounding." To the op- 

 ponent of evolution the resemblances, 

 analogies, and homologies that run 

 through animated nature are simply so 

 many false lights, igncs fatui^ suggest- 

 ing community of origin where com- 

 munity of origin there is none, Eudi- 

 mentary organs signify nothing, neither 



do the facts of embryology. All that 

 can be said is that God made things as 

 they are, rudimentary organs and all, 

 just as suited himself. If different spe- 

 cies and genera show resemblances, it 

 is simply because the same ideas kept 

 running through the Divine Mind. 

 Such is the sum and substance of anti- 

 evolutionist teaching. That it is anti- 

 scientific, and that it tends to nothing 

 less than paralysis of the intellectual 

 powers, is evident at a glance. Fortu- 

 nately, it is confined nowadays to syn- 

 ods and conferences, and even there 

 is not received with entire favor. At 

 the recent CEcumenical gathering of 

 Methodists at Washington an earnest 

 divine from the Southern States found 

 some of his brethren, particularly those 

 from England, badly infected with evo- 

 lutionary ideas. A similar discovery 

 might be made in almost any similar 

 assembly to-day. Evolutionists may 

 therefore proceed very contentedly with 

 their studies. They are in the right 

 path, because they believe in the univer- 

 sality of natural causation ; and, if they 

 fall into error, they will work their way 

 out again without any abandonment of 

 their cardinal principle. 



LITERAKY NOTICES. 



The History cf Human Marriage. By 

 Edward Westermarck. LoDdon and 

 New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 644. 

 Price, $4. 



The words of Pope — " The noblest study 

 of mankind is man " — long used as a motto 

 by the cultivators of the so-called humani- 

 ties, are in full agreement with the disposi- 

 tion of scientific research to give increasing 

 attention to the field of anthropology. Folk 

 lore, family and tribal customs, the evolution 

 of religions, the origin and development of 

 races, heredity, etc., are pre-eminently the 

 scientific topics of the time. The many who 

 are interested in this department of science 

 will welcome the work of Dr. Westermarck, 

 concerning which A. R. Wallace says in an 

 introductory note, " I have seldom read a 

 more thorough or a more philosophic discus- 

 sion of some of the most difficult and at the 



