December 1, 1886.] 



♦ KNOW^LEDGE 



40 

 



account of the origin of the human race correct, there covikl 

 not have been five thousand persons living all over the fifty 

 millions of square miles of land surface on our planet. But 

 it seems idle to talk about matters so well known, respectnig 

 wliich there has long been but one opinion among all who 

 are in a position to form an opinion at all. 



* * * 



The heel of the negro would not have been developed 

 from straight-heeled ancestors, or the heel of the Caucasian 

 from ancestors heeled like the negro, or the two forms 

 severally developed from ancestors with any intermediate 

 degree of backward curvature in the heel, in ten times the 

 period named by the Cliris/ian. 



* *■ * 



The Eev. Mr. Talmage, whose singularly unpleasant 

 jireaching (in which ulcers and sores are the favourite forms 

 of imagery) seems to find favour in America, has finally 

 found an argument for the overthrow of what he has 

 characteristicallv called the " putrid " theory of evolution. 

 " The survival "of the fittest," be says. " Yes, the fittest 

 alwavs survives, does it not] Guiteau, the murderer, sur- 

 vived Garfield, our good President, for several months. Of 

 coui-se, Guiteau must have been the fitter of the two. So, 

 at any rate, say Darwin and Huxley and Spencer, for they 

 tell us the fittest survive." 



* * * 



The same earnest preacher (terms 500 dols. per sermon) 

 deems it not blasphemous to rebuke blasphemy thus: — 

 " A wretch half maddened by the delirium of drink raved 

 against God the other day "in the fields ; rebuked by his 

 neighbours he grew bolder in his denunciations, proclaiming 

 that if God appeared there to punish him, he, the wretched 

 drunkard that be w;is, would whip the Almighty. Then 

 was God's wrath aroused against that man. Smoke came 

 from his mouth. Those who had heard him blaspheme drew 

 near to watch him breathing out fearful flames, and shriek- 

 ing in the agony justly inflicted by an angry God. The 

 blasphemer perished, slain with fire by the God he had 

 otiended." Of course, no such event as this really happened. 

 Mr. Talmage is not a truthful man. But if a man had died 

 under such circumstances, would it not be as blasphemous 

 to impute the manner of his death to an allwise and infinite 

 Being, as it would be to impute to God's special will the 

 crime of some murderer, or the misconduct of this poor 

 wretch himself] If we should think meanly of a man who, 

 beinf insulti^d by a helpless drunkard, should beat him into 

 the gutter, what are we to think of a man who attributes to 

 God what wc should thus despise in a man ? 



* * * 



The v-orld may be divided, so far as ethical religion is 

 concerned, into three great classes : — 



First, those who think " This is m;/ duty ; " 

 Sicomlhj, tho.se who say " This seems our duty ; " and 

 Thirdly, those who teach " This is i/our duty." 

 Usually the first class do what they think their duty : the 

 second, with a wider sense of duty, try to fulfil it ; the third 

 are apt to be so intent on the inquiry whether others do 

 their duty as to have little inclination left for attending to 

 duty themselves. MftUo iulissimus ibis ; the middle cla.ss 

 of the three is the best, though much may be said for the 

 first. Distrust the third. 



* * * 

 I FEAR the Bishop of Carlisle will be attacked in lively 

 fashion for bis article in the Conteniporar;/ Bfvieir, inv.hic\i 

 he adopts much the same view of the connection between 

 the seven davs of the week and the seven planets as I have 

 indicated in "my articles on " The Unknowable." Still less 



will it be liked that he should advance as possible what 

 science has long since recognised as certain, that the Genesis 

 cosmoson-.- is but a speculation, and as certain what science 

 has long since recognised as obvious, that it has no scientific 

 value. But he falls into error in describing the interval between 

 full moono as 28 davs, and therefore asserting that there 

 are more nearlv 13 t"han 12 lunar months in a year. There 

 are 29o4 days"in a lunar month, and 12 such months cover 

 35-1-.5 days. 



* * * 



From a clerical correspondent I have received a letter 

 courteously inviting me to say what I believe in regard to 

 the " Josephus question." " You should go on," he says, 

 " to tell us what you believe to be a correct account, so that 

 we may judge whether we are not thereby landed in greater 

 diflScukies than meet us in accepting the orthodox account." 

 Here the word orthodox manifestly bears only its conven- 

 tional meaning, for orthodox used in its correct meaning 

 would involve a. pditio principii. 



* * * 



I ORiGix.\LLY presented the '-Josephus question" as an 

 " historicfl puzzle," and, unlike the puzzles whicli are now 

 appearing monthly in these columns, it is not one to which 

 1 have undertaken to give a solution. If I had I might 

 have found myself much worse " put to it " than I did 

 when coming to the problem of the sixteen whist-players 

 who were to have five sittings without any two ever being 

 at the same table ; I found I could not get a solution quite 

 so quickly as I had expected. I felt sure when I asked 

 that question that there must be a solution, and I supposed 

 there would be no difficulty in finding it ; but it took me 

 longer than I cared for -."and only the sense of duty to 

 readers, who might have failed, and who would expect the 

 propounder of t1ie puzzle to solve it for them, caused me to 

 work the puzzle out. The Josephus puzzle, or rather the 

 general puzzle, of which that particular perplexity is a part, 

 might more aptly be compared, perhaps, to such a puzzle as 

 the following, which / hdieve has a solution, but what that 

 solution may be I by no means promise to tell — for a most 

 excellent reason : — 



The Bo-ure represent; the plan of a prison with intercommunicating 

 cells (bless the Latin) : a prisoner in A is offered his freedom if 

 he can make his way to B after passing once, and once only, through 

 all the 36 cells. How is he to do it ? 



*- * * 



T HAVE in"mis matter of the historical and theological 

 puzzle most carefully limited my statements to matters of 

 fact, avoiding all ex'pression of opinion. Such facts :is are 

 certain and admitted I have stated as such ; where there is 

 doubt I have indicated the nature of the doubts. [ have 

 indicated no inferences. If any consider that the J(icts 

 point very definitely in a certain direction m which they 

 would rather not look, that highly illogical (but very 



