EVOLUTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14926, 31 August 1910, Page 10

EVOLUTION.

~ km.—-.those of your readers who scanned * A. M.'s" first reply to me- would deem nio impolite were I to make no acknowledgment of my obligations to him for fjLvounur n:c with a second notice. To show that there was no clisingemmusneAS m stopping .where I did, I shall give the remainder of the statement referred to. "But th hypothesis would probably cr o c\ci< further than this. Many who ho.d it would probably afiscnt to the position, that, ai the present moment, all our philc' eopliy, all our poetry, all ow science, and all our art—Plato, Shakspearo, Newton, and Raphael—an potential in t'ho (ires of tilt; sun. We long to learn something of our origin. If tlie evolution hypothesis be correct, oven tfe unsatisfied yearning must have to us acrois the ago.? which, separate tfit ui tconseiousness of primeval mist, from the consciousness of today.' I do not think that any holder of the cvolution hypothesis would say that I overstate or overstrain it in any way. I merely strip it of all vagueness, and bring.before ytii, unclothed and unvarnished, the notions by which it must staml or tail."

Truly marvellous are the evolutionist's powers of penetration. In- my not continuing my-first quotation "A. M." can discern dis-ingKiuousniss, and in the continuation of it given above he can discover that "the great professor showed tho * and then, that the potentialities of all sentient existence lay in that fiery cloud", and Tyndall ca.n |?evceivo that the consciousness of to:iay slowly but truly was evolved from the u'neonsoiousness ot primeval miets. It is no longer a matter of wonder that

"A. M." and his confreres are expecting to wit lies-, life coming from the non-living. In fact it would not startlo ms a whit to Irani at any moment that some master unind had " proved to a demonstration" that them is fire.in an iceberg. It should gi> without saying that I produced my iirst quotation from Tyndall merely as an airgumo-ilum and homii|cm, just to show tb:it "A II.," in introducing the design argument, had overreached himself. The idea, of quoting Tyndall as an authority on. my side never entered mv mind. Th» appealing to great names as" authority is a. , ban.? to progress, both -eligious "and soteutdic. That (he faith of the average evolutionist is on n pa, with that of tip proverbial charcoal-burner may be moved by anyone who would,take the trottb l .- to pat the matter to the test. Ask evolutionists for proof, of the doctrine they ospoiKvt and. twenty to one, vou will receive an answer to this effect:"" Why,'sir, there i? not a professor of biology alive that is nut an evolutionist!" Even in your corjwpcadenta there -is psreept.iblo "a slight diisjjo-sitiou to oast their burdens on-I shall leave, your readers to supply the rnissinjt name. It is truly an easy way to settle a, question.

Though "A. M.'' introduced tho design argument, he has made no attempt to overtnrow it. to demonstrate that the structure of organism manifests no evidences of purnose, adaptation, provision, cir prevision. He would furnish your readers with some mterestiiter matter,- and merit their sincere -thanks were he to attempt to do that, to shew -l-iow -wing-fur creatures have been evolved from wingless oucvt, or to reconcile the production of blossoms with tho doetrine of natural selection. Trusting that ' A. M." will "gird' up his loins like a man ".-and .'address hiniseJf to- the task.—l am, :ete. ; : :j , -~'> ~.,' v ; v PHILIr BItEMNEB. Fla.g..Su-amp,. August 26"-" -