The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1878-01-29

T1, IS - 49, - -, - - ~ ~ -
Written for The Spirit of Democracy,ln
EVOLUTION: :oa III
Eaq s]4 1-fif~ .tas 3 1t. 90 2a'f Hi.'P
e REV. ". q. RIDER, A, NJ. 81 ~
A Brief View Of Its History,
Ma ARTICLE III, r JaaI
ST, -- Gsena
Most probably the early Greek phi.
losophers gave the theory Of evolution
(ss under review its birth and frst i'm
pslses. Some taught that all existing
things have sprung from certain first
elements, such as air, water, or fire =
Me doctrine is not new though of late
much revived and methodized.' .Auaxi.
nander and Anaxagoras were among
tue htst adepts,a teaching the evolution
from earth moisture, and that
the ancestors of man himself were not
members of the genus homo oia ~ ~.
Itis said that Leucippus first mooted
tie a.omic philosophy, and was Joined
by sDsmocfitus and Epicurus. At any
rate it most likely originated among
these lights of early Greece ,el - !Is,gl
.Empedocles believed that members OF
the body, arms, feet, hands, limbs, eyes,
etc, we're first separate and independ.
ent living forms, and then combined to
produce other forms of more perfect
organic structure, the latter having the
power of propagations Natures work
from the first being syntbetical--a put
ting OF parts together which, like so
many fragments OF watch, were scat
tered broadcast, and laws. Of the phys,
icsi combined them Happily for them,
aud strange to say, they Ht Yeomeans,
in the American Cyclopedis, speaks Of
Aristotle as having tolerably correc.
ideas of evolution, though Tyndall as
sails the Stagarite as of sheer natural in
capacity as a physicist The names Of
ST. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas,
and other Christian teachers are associa.
ted with the early atomic philosophers
Tyndall in the Belfast lecture INDUCES
in fulsome adulation of Democritus,
Epicurus, and Lucretius Democritus
is represented as fully in accord with
the fundamental principles Of modern
evolution, believing in the eternity Of
matter, etc, and these W, rds are put
into his mouth "The soul consists Of
tree smooth. round, atoms, like those Of
fire. These are the most mobile of all
They interpenetrate the whole body. and
in their motions the phenomena Of life
arise " "Thus," says Tyhdall, the atoms
of Democritus are individually without
sensation: they combine in obedience
tosmechanical laws; and not only organ
ic forms, but the phenomena of sensa-
don and thought are also the result OF
Ftheir asembination" He speaks Of Epis
Gurus as student and endorser of the
philosophy of Democri,us. and as an
adept and expounder Of the atomic phi
losophy. His principles were, The
fortuitous origin of tue world; g. The
disinterestedness of the gods as to hu
mau affairs; 8. The mortality of the
soul 4 The most conformahle life Is
one wholly given up to pleasure, and the
priestly faculty of sense being the con-
stitutional judge. Lucretius, a Roman,
born 80 B. G., is also in the line of
atomic succession He developed the
philosophy Of Epicurus, denying that
"the constitution of nature has been, in
any way, determined by intelligent de-
sign.p auHf.ad Eeo" s7s
Thus was born and Graded by Roman
and Grecian philosophers that which has
heen characterized "the baldest of all
the philosophers which have sprung up
in our world.p But evolution had its
"middle ages during which the doc!
trine was scarcely thought of, and. re-
manned dormant until the second for.
NAL introduction by Linneaus and But
fon who we're theme to form any adeL
quate conception 6f the true scope of
the doctrine But why this long and
breathless silence2 1t is accounted.for
by the introduction of the Christian era
This statement would be met by fro wns
and grimaces from the descendants of
the .shairy qnadruped," but we will en-.
tertan it for u moment. .slsa aori s.alm
Whatever may have been the spec
ulations among the people relative to
the origin of the universe and its forms
of life, those who embraced the Chris
tian religion cannot be supposed to have
disbelieyed the existence of God, and
the direct agency OF 6nal cause in the
universe of mind and matter This em-
braces large and increasing number of
the people of that, day whom nothing
but Christian ,propagandism could have
saved from the various errors of the
philosophic schools, and. according to
the writings Of Paul, they did, in some
instances, deviate. t sssuxs sa
4 On the other hand, what was the
| faith of contemporary class of pagan
philosophers What of the doctrines
OF Plato and Aristotle2a Tyndall re.
ferring to these men, says, ut was not
they, but Genseric and Attila and the
barbarians. who, destroyed the atomic
philosophy" Belfast lecture. " .I7sa
But the destruction of any system oi
philosophy depends upon the substitu.
ton of. another. At and since that day
the Aristotelian philosophy survived the
atomic. and in leading philosophic minds
substituted therefor, and therefore de,
stroyed it, And on the principle of the
survival Of the fttest," tits to be de
cided which of the two is the lighter
and more inflated substance. Who coulo
expect the pagan mind to do much bet
ter than to suppose the world rested on
the back of huge turlle2 But it die
better, and was cropping after God The
idea, though not disclosed to them as
it was to the Jews, nevertheless came
upon them in fainter adumbrations -
Socrates at the close of his life, and
long before the advent of Christ, en-
couraeed the people to look for a dis
closure from some superhuman intelli
gence, who should have great regard
T! for them and inform them as to the &C
ceptability of their philosophy "a to the
II Deity 0f what ia this an evidence