20 THE HORSE IN MOTION. 



All science, in whatever department of knowledge, is retarded much 

 by the ignorance and zeal of the multitude who follow on the heels of 

 genius. Medicine has its mountebanks, who are dragging a noble 

 science into public contempt ; religion has its harlequins, and natural 

 science its buffoons, who, as itinerant lecturers, perambulate the towns 

 as representatives of learning they do not possess, and put forth as 

 proved truth the wildest speculations of enthusiasts, and call them sci- 

 ence. It is very common to hear of the origin of man from the ape, 

 as if the relation were a scientific truth, when in fact it is only a specu- 

 lation ; and all the evidence so far collected from fossil remains as early 

 as the tertiary deposits gives no confirmation to the speculation. As 

 far away as any trace of the prehistoric man has been found, he was as 

 perfectly developed as he is to-day, and as far removed from the ape. 



Darwin is not responsible for what is known as Darwinism. He 

 is a model for a naturalist, collecting facts and placing them in their 

 relation, drawing his conclusions cautiously, and candidly admitting the 

 difficulty when a fact antagonizes the hypothesis he is framing. Not 

 so with his zealous disciples, who rush to their desired conclusions 

 over his facts, as the fanatical Christians of Alexandria did over the 

 last vestal altar of Greek philosophy. 



Organic life is the result either of chance or design ; there can be 

 no middle ground.* If the latter, the question of how it was brought 

 about will never be solved by man, nor is it important that it should be. 

 It is sufficient that a Supreme Intelligent Will is the author and sus- 

 tainer of all, a beneficent Spirit, who 



* Virchow, who will be recognized as one of the leaders in the new departure in science and 

 the cell theory of development, says : 



" This much is evident. If I do not choose to accept a theory of creation, if I refuse to be- 

 lieve that there was a special Creator who took the clod of earth and breathed into it the breath 

 of life, if I prefer to make for myself a verse after my own fashion, then I must make it in the 

 sense of generalio equiroca (spontaneous generation). Tertiam non datur. No alternative re- 

 mains when once we say, ' I do not accept creation, but I will have an explanation.' If that first 

 thesis is laid down, you must go on to the second thesis, and say, ' Ergo, I assume the generalio 

 equivocal But of this we do not possess any actual proof. No one has ever seen a generatio 

 equivoca really effected ; and whoever supposes he has is contradicted by the naturalist, and not 

 merely by the theologian." PROF. VIKCHOW, in a lecture delivered before the German Asso- 

 ciation of Naturalists and Physicians at Munich, 1877. 



