WHAT IS DARWINISM t 119 



Principal Dawson. 



Dr. Dawson, as we are informed, is re- 

 garded as the first palaeontologist, and among 

 the first geologists, in America. In his- " Story 

 of Earth and Man," x he passes in review the 

 several geological periods recognized by geolo- 

 gists ; describes as far as knowable the distri- 

 bution of land and water during each period, 

 and the vegetable and animal productions by 

 which they were distinguished. His book from 

 beginning to end is anti-Darwinian. In com- 

 mon with other naturalists, his attention is 

 directed principally to the doctrine of evolu- 

 tion, which he endeavors to prove is utterly un- 

 tenable. That Mr. Darwin's theory excludes 

 teleology is everywhere assumed as an uncon- 

 troverted and uncontrovertible fact. " The 

 evolutionist doctrine," he says, " is itself one 

 of the strangest phenomena of humanity. It 

 existed, and most naturally, in the oldest 

 philosophy and poetry, in connection with the 

 crudest and most uncritical attempts of the 



1 The Story of Earth and Man. By J. W. Dawson, LL. D., 

 F. R. S., F. G. S., Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill 

 University, Montreal. Author of Archaia, Acadian Geology, etc;. 

 Second edition. London, 1873, pp. 397. 



