4 DARWINISM AND EVOLUTION. 



It was once an article of faith that our world was the steadfast 

 centre of the universe. We still speak, without confusion, of the 

 sun's rising and setting ; but no one would now spontaneously 

 say that " the sun rejoices as a strong man to run a race." 



And when Galileo contended that the earth moves round a 

 central sun, he was crushed, with an iron hand, and the church 

 was triumphant. This is an example of the first of the three 

 possibilities. That there might be no further mistake, and no 

 more heresy in this matter, the Pope of the day promulgated 

 a bull, which is in force to this hour, that the sun moves round 

 the earth. 



Then came Newton, who gave irresistible proof that Galileo 

 was right and that the Pope was wrong. And because Newton 

 could not be crushed, and because the infallible church was the 

 most powerful organisation in Europe, the second of our three 

 possibilities was established. 



The College of Jesuits was always a learned body, and it 

 includes men of the highest scientific attainments. Newton's 

 " Principia " was presented to the Royal Society in 1686. An 

 edition of this work w r as published by the Jesuits in 1739, and on 

 an introductory page of the book is printed this humiliating 

 declaration by PP. le Seur et Jacquier : — 



Newtonus in hoc tertio Libro, Telluris motae hypothesim 

 assumit. Autoris Propositiones aliter explicari est poterant, nisi 

 eadem quoque facta hypothesi. Hinc alienam coacti sumus 

 gerere personam. Caeterum latis a summis Pontificibus contra 

 Telluris motum Decretis nos obsequi profitemur. 



[In this book Newton hypothecates the earth's motion. The 

 authors propositions could not otherwise be explained. Hence 

 we are compelled to play another's part. But we profess our 

 submission to the decrees made by the highest Pontiffs against 

 the earth's motion.] 



Thus we see that men driven to accept a fact as logically 

 proved, may yet for some generations retain its direct con- 

 tradictory as an article of religious faith. 



Were we to say of these Reverend Fathers that, while they 

 advanced a truth with the right hand, they held out a lie with the 

 left, we should yield to an unworthy temptation. 



It is wrong to throw stones ; it were folly to do so when we 

 live in a house built altogether of glass. Some of us were taught 

 in youth that the earth was made in six terrestrial days ; and may 

 have been told when we doubted that we were on the road to 

 perdition. 



We have all advanced a long way on the road to perdition 

 since then ; or should have done so had there not come to pass 

 the third possibility of which we spoke. Religion is adapting 

 itself to the requirements of Science, 



