Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1852-12-29
LETTERS TO Mr.. ]. 8. GRIMES.
LETTER No. INTRODUCTORY.

SIRs-Asyour Pkneno- Biological Lectures have
been delivered in our city, and your work on
Phreno eology has been brought before the public
mind, in one or more Of our daily papers. todnw
TO K the atlehlionIof the public, IhayG tahep The
liberty to propose a few questions respecting some
things contained in them, to you, Though the me-
dunn of the Editor. AS those questions have not
been answered, and as there appears to me some
strange unscienifc things propounded' I:pnTposef
to investigate their claim to be ranked among sclen
tifc facts. ..- ...-,5,s,a
am wen aware how exceedingly unpopular il
is to say OF RIite word against what is called
science; and that, when-a clergyman does say any
thing, tits attributed to the bigotrya super
stition of his profession dread Of censure pre-
vehts many modest man from correcting what he
knows TO be the mere crudities and rubbish OF
science. HUGH MILLER has, with infinite pEoPHety'
said: 'sThere is a species of superstition which
incIinesmen to take on trust whatever assumes the
name of science, and which seems to be reaction
on the old superstition that had faith in witches,
but none in Sir Isaac NeIOtOHj that believed IN
Ghosts, but failed to credit the Gregoran calendar
And, owing mainly to the wide diffusion Of this
credulous spirit of the modern type, the dsUeloP-
msnt doctrines are doing much harm on both sides
of the Atlantic, especially among intelligent me
chanies and a class of yonng men. engaged in the
subordinate departments oftrade and the laWi AMI
the harm, thus considerable in amount, must be
necessarily more than considerable in degree, FORT
invariably happens that, when persons in these
walks become naterialiSts, they become also turbu-
lent subjects and bad men."-FOOt prints, PIP.
I. haF
Now, Sir, 1t is against this Development hypO-
tktsis of your theory that feel impelled to con-
tend. There is nothing new in the theory; only
the controversy has passed over from the meta
physical to the physical arena, no doubt to be as
.irnaily defeated on the latter as it was on the
| former. ls
am not one of those who regret that such opin-
ions are given to the public It is only by coils
ion that truth is disengaged from the husk Of error
which often surrounds it. On all the great ques-
tons hich relate to the origin and cestiny of our
race, we welcome light and suggestion from what
ever source it may come. Itisonly from the timid
aud indiscreet zeal of those who would screen the
tenes of their faith from full and free discussion
that these interes's are liable to suffer. Nothing
can be more unwise than TO oppose what sthought
to be the teaching of the Bible to the doctrines Of
any OF the physical sciences. If these doctrines
have been too hastily assumed, and subsequent
discoveries do not confirm them, they will soon
pass away through the progress of the science it.
self. If IN the other hand they are well founded,
they will ultimately prevail and the Biblical critic
will be obliged 10 withdraw fromthe position which
he has taken, to ground which may be more tena-
BILE. The dogmas Of creeds, which we've thrown
across the paths of the sciences of Astronomy and
Geology, only gave new vigor to their progress.
as they were advancing towards their rapid matu-
rty; and what deserves most specially to be noted
is the interesting fact, that they furnish the
most remarkable combinations, we'll as the most
sublime Illustrations, of many Of the truths be
longing to the revealed system, which they were
supposed at one time so seriously to threaten.
II is much to be regretted that the author of
Phreno- Geology has not kept pace with the adj
vancing columns of scientific discovery. Had he
done 80, he would have discovered tile all con-
quering triumphs of Geological scierce, over the
strange vagaries propounded by the author offVes-
tiages,' and would not have been recently engag
ed in new vamping and fathering them. The
whole scheme is based upon analogies, which at
best are remote and shadowy; and were they ever
so real, and ever so strong, analogy alone would
be insufficient to support hypothesis, enbarraSS-
ed by so remarkable difficulties. That the first
human being, originating in a microscopic OVEN,
passed through the successive stages of total de-
velopment, and the almost equally dependant state
of infancy, with other aids and assistances than
the surrounding elements afforded, is supposition
almost surprising in wlldness and extravaganza the
Oriental fiction, of the 'IMundans Ego lob
On page 10, yoa say, "By the will of God the
increasing GOODNESS of climate produced the princi
pal circumstances that prOdueedanimuls and men,"
Again, on p. 81, at quite evident to my mind
that animals and men were created gradually and
progressively as that the mountains were so Great
ed. There is no scientific evidence that single
organic thing on earth was created suddehly."-
Imp. 80, 'To say that man was made at once in
single day, from dust or from chemical atoms, is
tomake man exception to all the rest Of nature.
But the tendency of the treatise is to show that
man, like all the rest of creation is the result OF
gradual and progressive super additions Of parts
and changes of FORMS" lsI-
Such are the development hypothesis which in
my next communication purpose to examine; and
now conclude by remarkns, that at the first view,
this hypothesis has but little of the repu!sveness
of nfideIity in its aspect. Itrecognizes inteli-
gent First Cause, and is in no way irrecuncilable
with the existence in Him of those attributes which
religion teaches. Itsadvocates haveeven adopted
the forms of religious expression, which, unless
carefully observed, are regarded by their disciples
as declarations of theirreligious faith.
Yours, &c. JOHN WINTER.
Promise of n6arriage-F1are Match bro
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