LECTURE ON EVOLUTION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 65, 14 September 1909, Page 2

LECTURE ON EVOLUTION.

Judging f»om the full audience in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall last night, when the Rev. W. Tudor Jones gave his lecture ''From the Cell to the Solar System," there must be ~ a large portion of the community interested in somewhat abstruse philosophical problems. Mr. D. M'taVflU, M-V-> w as in the chair, and introduced the lecturer. The lecture, which was extempore, was based on the new Darwin, memorial volume, which Dr. Jpnes had before him, and consisted of a commentary on the subjects suggegted by the table of. contents. To this volitfne aboui> thirty men of spienoe, including such distinguished authorities as Dr. Joseph Hqoker, had contributed appreciation^ of Charles Darwin. Some of these men were specialists in their own departments ; few fields of enquiry were unrepresented, and there was 3, marvellous variety of discordant and sometimes contradictory hypotheses. But in one point all united — all agreed that Darwin had given a new stimulus to scientific research and deeply influenced scientific thought, however its more recent conclusions might differ in some respects from his own. The lecturer laid emphasis on the point that modern science was more and more ignoring the old conception of man as a spiritual being, and concerning itself with his physical structure. The point of view in regard to moral and ethical training was changing- Once the ideal was the "nice" man and woman — peaceable, inoffensive, self-repressive. It was now recognised that it was the despised and repressed instincts that made the man.. Wrongly directed they sept him to ruin, rightly they made him a conquering farce. ''Nice" people contributed nothing to the world's progress. Evolution taught us' that man could control the forces around him — not only physical, but ethical and social. The evolution theory had made religion more humane and rational, and was indicating the Jines on which human society must ultimately evolve. We were ever moving on — in what direction we know not, sa ve that it was to some far-off goal. The leatuia yl«»«d. with Uu» u*uftl vote of thapkjt