Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1880-11-25
TIE HERALD.
An Able Attack on the Evolution



lists
Prof Franc Bowen's 'Gleauings
hon Literary Life" is receives
considerable at!eg! llsagPl..-, !. The crit
ic-, largely because OF its sharp at
iacks On the "evolutiobists. - The
Chicago Times says, in reviewing it /:
'No r. adler o. current science and
speculation, who has not become in.
talua;ed with its persuas we preten
stone, can have failed to observe how
strsnuoasIy that school insists on
what it calls the scientific methodip
solving slI questions which it takes
up for discussion and with what
curious laxity OF reason that iniunc
ton is discarded by the majority OF
those to whom it is directly ad-
dressed. To be scientific in reach.
ing conclusions, careful man will
examine keenly his chief proposition;
he will scrutinze all the evidence
that may be obtainable in its affirm
alton or denial /; he will not consent
to accept evidence the nature of
which he cannot understand /; he will
not concede as demonstrated truths
assumptions whose demonstration
into truths be has not seen and can
not discover and he will insist on
palpable distinction between pre-
sumption and demonstration. 1t is
within the knowledge of all observ-
ing persons that the adherents Of the
prevailing fashion in belief concern
ing the origin Of man and his deriva-
ton from any kinship with the brutes,
include many who cannot have had
iair opportunities for acquiring scien-
tlfic habits of thought, aud who
therefore are the more easily per-
suaded han any school setting up
scientific standard is necessarily
scientific school, incapable OF fallacy,
Intaltible IN logic, unerring in infer
ce, absolutel y accurate IN fact. The
unscientIhc reader is easily won over
to the conviction that by accepting
the dogma of such a school, he, too,
becomes scientific, without the aid OF
those old fashioned means which in
less enterprlsiDg days were essential
to learning and scholarship-ye ears
of study, patient examination of con-
tlIcting testimony, arduous investiga
ton by exact agencies, and modest
acceptance OF the labors of genera
tions of able, honest, and learned
men as perhaps superior to his own
aItalnmt hts OF a week or two. The
scientific method Of thought for the
investigation Of current hypothesis
IL not thus to be acquired The the
CRY OF the identity of mind and ner-
yons system put forth by Bastian,
demands for It's Just appreciation
a knowledge Of physiology, auch as
only specialists can have, yet Bas
tian's conclusions are enthusiastically
adopted by those who never touched
the hem OF the garment of that study.
The skilltnl Psychologist pays less at.
tention to Bastian's theory of nerve
evolution than to bis confession that
physiology IN in it's infancy, and can
not afford to be dJgmalic toward
other sciences. How many Of those
who accept Haeckel as an authority
are acquainted, even specifically,
with the SO called science Of embry-
ologY? And how easy it is to for
get that from the amplest data OF the
same class en Agassiz drew conclu.
slons the very reverse Of Haeckel's!
How many WHO imagine, from frag
mehtary reading, that the Darwinians
nave shown a direct progression in
species eliminating in man, can state
how much verification of this is sup
piled 10y paleontoloey? What be
lever IN the evolution of man from
higher brute can dispose of the over
wheImlng facts against it in Man
and Apes, by st. George Mivart?
There surely never was a scientific
theory which obtained so ready
credence ia so unscientfic way as
tSiS revived hypothesis of evolution
The chief value liz the collect.
ed writings OF DR. Francis Bowen,
professor OF philosophy in Harvard
College, lies in their vigorous aud
acute attack on the theory of evolu
ton as applied TO the origin of man.
Dir Bowen writes with an energy
whose force his antagonists must &C
knowledge and in appl,iug the
canons OF cold reason to their AMI
mated vagaries, be does serious dam
are TO a scientific method which ia
50 imposing in what it claims, but
less so in what 1t demonstrates. The
essays which the thoughtful inquirer
will find especially enlightening, are
those entitled respectively The Latest
Form Of the Development Theory,
Diseases and Malformations not Her.
edltable, The Idea OF Cause, The Hu-
man and the Brute Mind, Malthusian.
ism, Darwinism, and Pessimism
and through the volume there is
maintained spirit OF logical analy
sis into so called scientific conclusions
which will be strengthening tc can.
did minds whose sincere desire is to
get 5 closely at the truth as they
may. In the first essay named, DR..
Bowen states the propositions of
Darwinism But before doing so.
he quotes the important words of Sir
Charles byell, the eminent geologist.
1T appears, he says, that from the
remotest periods, there has ever been
coming in Of new organic forms.
and an extinction of those which pre-
existed on the earth; some species
having existed for longer, others
for . shorter time; while none have
reappeared after once dying out
'The species which are now IN exist.
enoe, adds De Bowen, belong. geo
logically speaking, to comparatively
recent times; indeed, none of the
higher order among them are found
in fossil state at all DR.. Bowen
maintains that the theory of the de.
velopment Of species, the one from
the other, is subject to the test OF
universal observation aud experience.