210 Notes and Comments. 



extraordinary effusion --' According to Evolutionists, Nature 

 is a great impersonal God, whose first production of life on the 

 earth was in the form of protoplasm. After thousands of 

 years, they say an ambitious family of protoplasm evoluted 

 and became tadpoles. For some thousands of years the 

 tadpoles reigned as an aristocracy of the earth ; and then an 

 ambitious family of tadpoles concluded to evolute and become 

 frogs. Thousands of years Ister there arose an aristocracy 

 among the frogs, which evoluted and became monkeys. After 

 other thousands of years an aristocracy among the monkeys 

 evoluted and became college professors ; and that is the 

 attainment of our day. In answer to our queries they boast 

 of their ancestry and also of their posterity, telling us that, in 

 perhaps a million years in the future they will live everlastingly 

 in a representative sense in that their children will have 

 evoluted to a condition of wisdom and discretion wherein they 

 will not need to die.' The writer then blandly adds : — ' Con- 

 trast this nonsense {sic) the wisdom of this world, with the 

 Wisdom from Above, which tells us the opposite.' We are 

 not aware of the source of the writer's ' wisdom of the world,' 

 but we have never read such blithering piffle for some time. 

 It may do for the ' International Bible Students' Association,' 

 and if thev are satisfied that this is a sample of worldly wisdom, 

 they are no doubt glad to fl}^ to the ' Wisdom from Above,' 

 whatever that may mean. The author gives a sample, but 

 we dare not read it lest his ignorance of Wisdom from Above 

 may be on a par with that of his conception of earthl}' wisdom, 

 in which case we might be profane. 



SOCIETIES AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 



We have a way of doing things in Yorkshire which is 

 happily different from that which obtains in the south. When 

 a particularly prominent member of any important society 

 feels that he has ' done his bit,' or if he thinks his colleagues 

 have that impression, he retires ; and such a change is often 

 good for a society. If, as has happened, an official refuses 

 to take a hint, another is appointed ; the official may leave in 

 disgust, but the society still goes on, perhaps better than before. 

 But something very drastic would have to happen to enable a 

 new County naturalists' society to be formed in these times ; 

 yet this is practically what has happened, for some cause or 

 another, in the south. 



GILBERT WHITE SOCIETIES. 



We do not, of course, know that the cause is anomosity 

 towards any particular official, and we can hardly believe that 

 there is anything against the energetic Secretary of the Sel- 

 borne Society, who has done more than most people, even 

 the members themselves, are aware, to further the Society's 



. .Matura.ist, 



