New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-01-03
THE LECTURE,

II ia nv desire, ladies and gentlemen, TINS
evening 20 do what 1 to interpret and represent
many noted EngishInen, who have, In cooperative
xay which is surprising considering the diversity OF
many OF their views upon all leading subjects "'nlh
this generation concentrated great mental power VAST
examinations Of insight and learning, upon some OF the
deepcst problems that bese all our minds We have
heard in the past of the fierce lights that beat upon
the throne This year may remind US Of very nerce
light that beat upon the throne hundred years ago
But We are finding cOnyerging highland heroe II
Is arcady-he science that is beating upon man. Ihere
IA no sence which has for its main theme the
orien and relation OF and the universe IN wh0n DO
lys That has the startling fact Of science FOR the
last 80 OF years generation ago the great qucSuon
of the world was the antiquity Of man. ana the religious
bogy that haunted the piOus mind throughout the "ofu
was Sir Charles Lyell. 1t was at period Wheh
Cnares Darwin and Thomas Huxley were wan
derng about the world, In Australia ana III
South America trying to PICK up le"
facts and hardly dreaming themselves of the career that
was opening for them At that time it YVES considered
the widest and most unheard-o thought when Lyel III
timated the possibility that man might have been on 'hS
papet 100000 years The old died, ana II was not
three months before he laid in Westminster Abbey
the most noted thinker OF bis time finally honored by
being placed among all the saints OF England snort
time before that told Inc, with SMILE that he found
himself growing quite conservative; tho bishops ana
the clergy took him under their charge, and seemed TO
regard him as having been moderate in his demands
that they were preparing perhaps to make him bishop
II be could only live little longer. GLaushterJ
Now the antiquity of man so exciedy resisted by
the orthodox that whenever old flint arrow or an old
bone was found in Europe shudder went through the
whole world There was found skull in the delta OF the
Mississippi The news came TO Europe and they said
that WAS niggers skull" and that could not be
counted They resolved there could not have been
skull, that the Mosaic account OF creation would DC
gone up, provided any human bone was found 0f an
1Cha IN ouudn nm II.
20 belong to remote age but then it was decided that
that was an ape and not Huxley and other men
declared it man. but OF very low type
Then there was found skull which, Tor tme'
produced the widest emotion throughout England An
Old skull was found deep under mound OF some descrP
ton and nobody could tell whether that mound was alt
fetal or natural There great meeting about 1t OF
the scientific men and the clergy, and they hOVeTeu
around this old skull until at last some one discovered
that the right side of the skulls mouth the teetD were
worn away evidently by tobacco pipe, and there was
thanksgiving held in all the churches OF England az the
dscoyery that that man had smoked tobacco during his
lifetime for he therefore have smoked after the dis
covery Of America There the Abbeyie SKULL which
was found and settled the question There was no
reason why human bones should have been found, Tor
tie human bone is very perishable thing. II VIII
not last like flint and the world las been I'M
explored where man is known to have originated.
There Was least wou1er that bone should not be
found even where flint arrows are Nevertheless this
contest waged region which Is now cold battle
field The facts are all conceded-the antiquity OF man
beyond what supposed to be claimed by Archbishop
Usher what was written in the Bible. not part OF the
Bible but simply as part the theological claim OF the
Bible the facts were proved and are entirely beyond
dispute.
There Is little case that under my observa-
ton when was in There in the cavern
mass Of staagmite rock which stretches TO vast ex-
tent into the cave There OF this rock which
Is five feet thick that has been deposited there BY iu
tration rom the roof which has been dripping for ages
bringing down Of the soil until II has hardened Ia
this mass five feet thick. Under the Queens consent
this rock has little by little far "a across
this roon and at the end Of the deep cutting, under
meath the rock, have been found flint imple
ments made by man, and the remains OF IRE
The question s how long has this mass OF rock been in
forming that IRE built five feet beneath Curl
ously enough, have witness on that point for thi
Kent cavern place where people went to amnse
themselves five hundred years ago. 1t is noticed
In all the old books Of English history You know II is
the habit OF the Anglo Saxon in his methods OF high
toyment wherever he goes TO leave some track OF hs
march Any one who should go to Niagara o. Mammoth
Cave and not leave there notification OF his yt when
perhaps he took his sweetheart with him would
chow himself wanting in Of the pleasant
feelings OF the American and so with the EnglshInan
And those people used to their this rock
And there Is one there OF man who carved bis
namo 10 great depththat is One-eighb OF an inchand
he carved the date when no ordWeu over on INC Top Vi
that rock and exactly 229 years ago since he carved
1t there Now the drppngs from tho roof have
upon that name and the rock has been forming exactly
the same IL two three, four hundred years
ago There has any cessation Of the falling OF
this 20 this staagnitic rock The question
a. them since the formation ia going How long II has
taken 20 I'LL up that which Is cut TO the depth OF
oneeighth OF inch, while 1t is not yet quito concealed
But suppose today this I'd Of January 1t should become
concealed then 1t would have taken 90 years to have
brought down enough soil in the dripping from the roof
to have concealed that NAME that is 20 have deposited
oneghth OF inch, and at that rate to deposit the
whole amount 1t would require 10000 years. That is
ono among @ hundred various facts In geology which
prove incontestaby that the worlds antiquity is no
longer limited by the specnatoas OF Archbishop
Usher.
THE BIBLE NOT IN CONFLICT WITH GEOLOGY.
But really there lesson In all this. lesson Tor all
seekers after truth Tor 1t found that all that heat
that anxiety that erocy which characterized the war
against Sir Charles Lye and the belief in the antiquity
OF man. waged entire point OF ignorance among
the people, for there nothing In the Bible whatever
that said that only COCO years old II seems
that old Archbishop Usher, In settling himself down to
peculae the subject speculated that man had been
created on November the st. 1904, Is. c. lie knew
nOthny about e. than you or know about II,
and speculated tho subject and anything that
the Archbishop said must DO so cx cduedrd 30 very
top page OF tho Bible, and so all this war and c0nnlet
about antiquity in defense OF an English Archbishop
AND Ia another amusing circumstance that the discus
sion OF the orthodox the subject was on the point
the fear that man would not be made out TO have
originated perfection, for those flint arrows the do
pressed foreheads OF those skulls-al this seemed TO