328 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ing creature " implies secondary agents to carry out the will of the 

 Lord. Such might be said to witness to natural law, which, after all, 

 is but a synonym for the will of God. 



The real basis of the controversy between dogmatic theology and 

 this deduction of Science is simply this : The former has established a 

 creed based upon erroneous impressions derived from Scripture, and, 

 from having had power in former days to enforce its opinions, they 

 were credulously received without hesitation as long as no one dared 

 to or even could controvert them. It is the reluctance to surrender 

 this power to Science as much as the idea of her offering any opposi- 

 tion to theology that urges at least one body so obstinately to resist 

 her advances. Nearer home the opposition rests more on the latter 

 ground ; and it will not be until the representatives of our theology 

 can see and confess their false impressions of the meaning of the first 

 chapter of Genesis, that the doctrine of evolution can be hoped to 

 make any great progress among them. 



Let us briefly review their false positions. They first clung to the 

 " six days of creation ; " they found they were compelled to surrender 

 the idea, and immediately adopted the interpretation of yom signify- 

 ing an indefinite period. Again, notice their readiness in adopting 

 the theory of cataclysms and recreations, a second time to the detri- 

 ment of Genesis, which furnishes no warrant for the idea ; for even 

 if six days be presumed to represent six cataclysms, geology furnishes 

 no corresponding evidence. It was a pure fiction altogether. And 

 even now they steadily oppose the doctrine of evolution. But surely 

 as each stronghold of theology has been quietly taken by Science — 

 not so much by offensive attack as by undermining and leaving the 

 edifice to crumble of itself — the tardy and ungracious capitulations 

 hitherto offered only insure the ultimate surrender a matter of pa- 

 tient expectation. A time will shortly come when the creative theory 

 must succumb altogeth at and the doctrine (not the theory) of evolu- 

 tion will be as much recognized as a fundamental truth of science 

 and theology as the evolution of the earth itself. 



■»*» 



GKOWTH AND DECAY OF MIND. 



" And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe, 

 And then from hour to hour we rot and rot, 

 And thereby hangs a tale." — As You Like It. 



FEW subjects of scientific investigation are more interesting than 

 the inquiry into the various circumstances on which mental 

 power depends. By mental power I do not mean simply mental 

 capacity, or the potential quality of the mind, but the actual power 

 which is the resultant, so to speak, of mental capacity and mental 



