CHAPTER XII.
HARMONY OF GENESIS AND GEOLOGY.
DEVELOPMENT OF SPECIES—SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST—LAWS OF VARIATION—GRADUAL EXTINCTION OF ANIMALS—AQUATIC CHARACTER OF EARLIEST BIRDS—INDICATIONS OF LIFE IN CHALK—PRIMEVAL MONSTERS—HUGE LAND ANIMALS—CHANGE IN THE CLIMATE OF THE EARTH—CREATION OF MAN—NO INTERMEDIATE LINK.
Philosophers lay it down as a rule, that the materials for all revolutions, whether political, moral or social are prepared before-hand. A revolution in ideas and modes of thought is by no means an exception to this rule. The unthinking throng may gaze in wonder at the spectacle afforded by the sudden outburst; but the thoughtful student will trace the order of events, and the forces that have been long at work preparing the minds of men for the new order of things.
When in the latter part of the eighteenth century, Voltaire marshaled his arguments as a legion, and hurled his burning invectives against the corruptions of false Christianity, humanity stood aghast at the result, for they did not perceive that the forces which impelled it had long been preparing. When the works of Voltaire and Thomas Paine appeared, society was in such a condition that many accepted their teachings as a relief from existing evils. Much more, many persons were ready to follow them into all the wild sophistries of infidelity.
The history of that time, has been to some extent repeated in the great scientific revolution so vigorously at work in the nineteenth century. When Hugh Miller wrote his "Testimony of the Rocks" there were those who confidently expected that this work would overturn the Mosaic account of the creation; and a wonderful outcry was raised about the opposition between the records of the rocks and the Bible. After a time it was found that geology demonstrates the existence, wisdom and goodness of an Almighty Creator with irresistible evidence. So when Darwin, Huxley, Hooker, Spencer and others revealed to the world, a vast amount of knowledge concerning the origin of species and the development of plants and animals, there were those who would have gladly found an antagonism between the facts of science and the records of revelation. But now it is admitted that it would be equally wonderful, and would as much require the infinite powers of Deity, "to develop all the varied and marvelous forms of organic life from a single germ as to call them into existence by special acts of creation." In reality we owe these philosophers a debt of gratitude for having studied nature so carefully and given us so many deeply interesting and important facts.
It is evidently part of the divine plan that species should develop from a lower to a higher condition. We see this in the improvements in the breeds of our domestic animals, as well as in the wild animals that now live, as compared with the remains of the ancient Saurians that once roamed over the earth. The doctrine of "Natural Selection" or "Survival of the Fittest," as Huxley terms it, is also a law of nature. We see this illustrated at the present time in the history of races of men and species of animals. The weaker races of men are gradually disappearing while those nations who possess the highest physical, mental and moral characteristics are extending their dominion over the earth. In the history of animals this is likewise apparent. The gigantic, unwieldy ox, the Urus of Caesar, has been extinct since Roman times. The Auroch, another ox whose bones are frequently found in the same strata with extinct animals, would have been now entirely extinct but for the imperial edict which preserves a few in the forest of Lithuania. The gigantic birds Dinornis and Aptornis have but recently passed away. Perfect skeletons of them are still preserved in the museum of Christchurch, New Zealand. From the measurement of these skeletons they are estimated to have been nearly or quite twelve feet high. The Dodo, a heavy, clumsy bird, of fifty pounds' weight, with loose, downy feathers, and imperfect wings like a new-born chicken, became extinct only about 150 or 200 years ago. The Apteryx of Australia, which of all living birds most resembles some of the extinct species, still survives, ready to disappear. The lion, tiger, bison (or buffalo), elephant, rhinoceros, and, in fact, all the fiercer and larger animals, are even now disappearing before the advance of civilized man.
[SKELETON OF A MAN AND THAT OF A DINORNIS SHOWING COMPARATIVE SIZE.]
The law of variation, as expressed by Darwin, is true with certain limitations. For example, every person must admit a vast change in the condition of the best breeds of our domestic swine, from their ancestors, the wild boars of medieval Europe. Yet nowhere can be found a single instance of transmutation of species. For example, if we should trace the pedigree of a horse backwards through a thousand generations we should find that the original animal was also a horse, though probably a very inferior animal. Of all the living animals and fossil remains of extinct ones, though thousands of specimens have been discovered, yet of land animals and the higher orders of creation not a single instance of transmutation can be found. In all this we see a beautiful agreement with the divine record, "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so" (Gen. i, 24).
True, we are told by Huxley that the embryos of different animals closely resemble each other, so that at an early stage of their existence they cannot be distinguished. But what of this? It only shows the unity of design in the works of the Creator which is one of the grand characteristics of the world. Further, it teaches us a lesson of man's ignorance and imbecility. With all the aid of science we are unable to perceive those minute arrangements of atoms which will on development produce a tortoise or a fowl, a dog or a man. Who will presume to say that a castle was developed or "evolved" from a cottage because they were built of similar materials or because some of the rooms were after the same pattern? Why then should the Divine Architect's work be doubted because He gives to the germs of different beings the power of self-development according to a specified pattern, which is to end in the ultimate perfection of vastly different organisms?