CHAPTER FOUR. 
The Fixity of Species. 
A writer in the “Lutheran Companion” recently said 
that his seven year old boy brought home a text book 
some months ago, called “Home Geography for Primary 
Grades.” On page 143 is found this statement about 
birds: ‘Ever so long ago, their grandfathers were not 
birds at all. Then they could not fly, for they had neither 
wings nor feathers. These grandfathers of our birds 
had four legs, a long tail and jaws with teeth. After a 
time feathers grew upon their bodies and their front 
legs become changed for flying. These were strange 
looking creatures. There are none living like them 
now.” 
One is tempted to digress, for a moment, from the 
subject at hand in order to draw, from this incident, an 
argument for the Christian Day School; but we shall 
desist. The quotation is here adduced to illustrate the 
vogue which evolution, specifically Darwinism, still main- 
tains in the literature, even in the school-texts of our 
day. Babes and sucklings are introduced to the theory 
of evolutionary development, and the theory is presented 
with an assurance as if it were scientific truth. The 
words of Agassiz, prince of naturalists, apply to-day: 
“The manner in which the evolution theory in zoology 
is treated would lead those who are not special zoologists 
to suppose that observations have been made by which 
it can be inferred that there is in nature such a thing as 
change among organized beings actually taking place.” 
He adds: “There is no such thing on record. It is 
