246 J. M. CLARKE GEOLOGY AND ORDER OF THE STATE 



was notliing beyond. The majority had anived, but the majority had 

 fed itself fat on the spoils of the conquest and was moribund. Once more 

 out of this majority arose the protest of the minority and again the 

 keener witted, better cephalized, unimpaired, but obscure and diminutive 

 minority, strong always at the head, emerged from tlie welter of self- 

 indulgence to save the race. Eobbed of luxuriant food supply by a 

 mantle of ice, its vitality quickened and stimulated by the invigorating 

 cold, imperiously compelled by a world chill which hung on the earth 

 unknown years to purge itself of indirection and seek the straightest way 

 to physical salvation through the practice of simple virtues; from out of 

 such conditions came the human stock. 



If we do not recognize fully the fact that a majority conti'ol in our 

 governments is purely a matter of expediency in the handling of civic 

 affairs, let us remind ourselves of it on this occasion. We need only the 

 reminder, for however often the man in the ward and the voter at the 

 polls conceive that a majority is the paramount issue at stake, it is too 

 often forgotten that the majority is purely numerical, M^hile wisdom and 

 truth may rest Avith the minority. Amidst the inevitable expediencies of 

 government this is its salvation — that the minority, if clear and strong 

 at the head, like an antecedent river, will cut down mountains of oppo- 

 sition. 



"The triumphs of liberty have been due to minorities," said Lord Acton. 

 "The rule of the tyrant is tyranny whether he have one head or many. 

 The principle of absolute majority rule is as profoundly immoral and as 

 profoundly undemocratic as is the principle of the divine right of kings. 

 Majority rule is a practical device for the working of free institutions 

 and not a principle without limits or bounds upon which free institutions 

 may be based." 



This is the teaching of our science; the ephemeral worth of majority 

 control is always obvious ; the voice of the people is not the voice of God. 



e We have come to a point in our researches where observation and 

 inference teach us that life origin'ated in unicellular microbic forms under 

 conditions which have been indirectly indicated by the Chamberlins, 

 father and son, as governed by and intimately associated with a conjunc- 

 tion of soil and moisture, with obstructed air, and probably without direct 

 exposure to the actinic action of the sunlight. There has already been 

 interesting and substantial confirmation of the presence of actual bacteria 

 in the most ancient rocks of continental origin antedating the Cambrian, 

 and many well demonstrated expressions. The disco vei-y of fossil bacteria 

 is to be accredited to several students, Yan Ingen among others, but their 



