88 SYLVAN SECRETS. 



Adam and give Eve a brilliant wedding 

 serenade. 



Now I believe that, when they are read 

 aright, science and revelation, so far as they 

 pertain to material things, are mathemati- 

 cally equivalent to each other ; they coincide 

 in meaning, if not in form. They might bo 

 exactly superposable, were science reduced to 

 the simplicity of revelation, that is to simple 

 truth ; but unfortunately we cannot begin at 

 the beginning or go to the end of science. 

 Revelation states a fact, whilst science merely 

 collects evidence tending to establish a fact. 

 Revelation emits simple truth ; science strives 

 to reach this same elementary verity by a 

 process of reconstruction. 



The inspired record declares that man was 

 given dominion, which would imply that the 

 earth and all things upon it and in it were 

 made for his benefit. Science may profit by 

 this view of creation, and take the serving of 

 man's physical and mental needs as the end 

 of evolution. In other words, we may as- 

 sume that if the object of creation was to 

 make a sphere for man's dominion while in 

 the human state, then all the lines of creature 

 development have been drawn towards a 

 culmination, have been led to their highest 

 point, in the age of man's creation ; that the 

 Creator perfected the animal, mineral, and 

 vegetable kingdoms before he made man. 

 But what has all this to do with the genesis 

 of bird -song ? you will ask. Perhaps much, 

 perhaps little. Let us see. 



Without resorting to the language of tech- 

 nical scientific literature, where it can be 

 avoided, I will briefly review the records of 

 geology touching the origin of birds, and by 



