208 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



"mode of dealing with nature" as "utterly dis- 

 honorable to natural science," and as contradict- 

 ing "the revealed relation of the creation to its 

 Creator." l 



Darwinism was spoken of as " an attempt to de- 

 throne Godj" as " the only form of infidelity from 

 which Christianity has anything to fear;" as doing 

 " open violence to everything which the Creator 

 Himself has told us in the Scriptures of the methods 

 and results of His work." It was declared to be " a 

 dishonoring view of nature;" "a jungle of fanciful 

 assumption ;" and those who accepted it were said 

 to be "under the frenzied inspiration of the inhaler 

 of mephitic gas." " If the Darwinian theory is true," 

 averred another, " Genesis is a lie, the whole frame- 

 work of the Book of Life falls to pieces, and the 

 revelation of God to man, as we Christians know it, 

 is a delusion and a snare." 



Evolution naturally shared in the denunciations 

 hurled against Darwinism. It was designated as "a 

 philosophy of mud;" as "the boldest of all the 

 philosophies which have sprung up in our world ; " 

 as "a flimsy framework of hypothesis, constructed 

 upon imaginary or irrelevant facts, with a complete 



1 M.Flourens, perpetual secretary of the French Academy 

 of Sciences, thus wrote of Darwin's " Origin of Species,"shortlv 

 after its appearance : 



" Enfin 1'ouvrage de M. Darwin a paru. On ne peut 

 qu'etre frappe" du talent de 1'auteur ; mais que d'idees obscures, 

 que d'idees fausses! Quel jargon metaphysique jete mal-a-propos 

 dans 1'histoire naturelle, qui tombe dans le galimatias des 

 qu'elle sort des idees claires, des idees justes. Quel langage 

 pretentieux et vide ! Quelles personifications pueriles et 

 surannees ! O lucidite ! O solidite de 1'esprit fran9ais, que 

 devenez-vous?" 



