Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1881-04-19
FIGURES DO NOT LIE.
CORRECTION OF W. II. H. MURRAY's
ARITHMETIC

from school boys Arithmetic. A lecturer
in Music Hall, Boston. on recent Sun
day evening-Rev. Mr.. Murry-is re-
ported as dealing in glittering generali-
ties of figures to disprove the theory of
final judgment Of all men, and it would
appear that his audience accepted his
arithmetic as solid truth, We have moth
ing to do with his theories Of the judg
ment, but there ought to be judgment
and condemnation in Boston OF any man
who delivers such trash to an audience
having ordinary common school ednca-
ton. He is reported to have spoken
/ thus:
! Now the population OF the earth is l.000,-
| 600 GOO, and generation dies every thirty
years. In every thirty years, then 600 =
! 000, 900 of human beings 20 out of the
world aud |. 600. 600. 600 come In. Forty
years ago the Church taught that the world
/ was 5000 years old. She don't to-day
I pretend to guess within 100000 years how
/ old the world i. Very well. What has
/ been the population OF the worid since
I the race began. Who can estimate the
! nNiOltls DIV Nnuh NhNu ~"
! compute the swarming millions: Take
/ the globe and fiattcn II into n vast plain,
: - 600 nv ~, and would II accpmmo late
out fraction of the human beings that
nave lived upon It's surface! Where Is the
/ locality of judgment 10 be then: Can it
( have q locality:
Now make the widest conceivable estl
mates: Suppose that the human race
has existed on this earth 100000 years,
and that the population has never from
the first day been smaller than this es,i-
mate for the present time, namely, ,OOO,-
00O, 900. For the sake OF easy calcula-
/ ton. instead OF the estimate of thirty
wears to a generation call il three gener-
TO a century. There will then appear
TO have been three thousand generations
of thousand millions each, who, being
assembled. require standing room. For
crowded meeting of men, women and
children it would be ample estimate to
I give each two square feet OF room. A
square mile contains in round numbers.
/ 25 OOO. 900 square feet, and II, 100000
persons would stand on 1t. Therefore
eighty square miles woIld hold gener-
alton. and three thousand times that space
would hold the population OF bundled
thousand years That l. to say, 100000
square miles would contain them, and
gathered in a parallelogram, they would
stand in a space 600 miles long by 400
broad. Thcy could be easily accommo-
dated 10 one OF two Of our States.
Dead and buried side by side, they
would require only five times their stand
ing space. OF SAY 100000 square
miles, and the United States Of Ame'ieA
has ample Wild lands as yet unwanted
and uuoccupiei to give them cemetery
/ If any one wishes, he may estimate how
many hundred thousand years Of genera
tions could find graves in this country
withou, crowding one another.
Whoever will may imagine the popu-
/ lation assembled In circle or in a vast
theatre with floor above floor, each H)or
diminishing the surface area OF the build
| ing /, will do people Of vivid magma
ton good 10 reduce such imagnations TO
the facts Of figures. and any school girl
can do it.
I Blu, i, is just as well before leaving
the subject to say that the hundred thous-
and years Of Their reverend lecturer mag
I ination is as wild as his figures. Men
of uncertain faith are very fond OF saying
that other men have no faith. Nothing
can be more absurd than what he says
about the church The confused man
who fell off stage coach into the mud
thought the coach had upset. Mr.. Muir
ray will soon find out that the Church,
whatever is UNCONVENTIONAL name, is a
great deal more steady in us ancient faith
than are h; and Others who would Il IDLY
convince outsiders that the old coach has
actually gone over.
In his lecture as reported ne makes
/ tumble oftwo distinct subjects, the age
of the world aud the age of the human
race on its surface. The men who hold
notions about the extreme antiquity OF
the human race, have been very few and
have produced no sensible effect on the
faith of the Church or the general opinion
of the world, and among what are called
scientists the present difference OF opin-
ion as to the age of the human race Is
limited to a comparatively short period.
Bunsen's theory of date b. &. 10000
for Egyptian origins mas vanished, and
Maziette Bey's date Of b. G. 5000 for
Menes (or Misraim) will satisfy the views
of the most extreme among recognized
men Of sense.
The bone cave men have met with
the simple rules of evidence, which APP
ply to their supposed discoveries as they
apply to all questions of fact; and 1t Is
found that they have not proved IN a
single instance that human bones have
been living fifty. forty or ten centuries IN
those caves. The theory that the Missi-
ssippi had been for forty thousand years
depositing drift over human bones found
in the deposit disappeared in mist when
Humphreys and Abbot, United States
engineer officers on duty, having no
theory to sustain, accurately obserAed
and satisfactorily determined that the
entire Delta of the Mississippi has re-
ouired only four thousand years for its
total deposit. 1t is no longer question
of religion against science, bat case In
which common sense and knowledge
of the laws of evidence are demanding
something more than assertion without
| IL r. Tao,, - distinction from