Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1883-02-09

-NStOss S'NS'y VI HSoAVBy uUuetd WOulN
lead those who are not especial zoologist
to suppose that observations have been
made by which it can be inferred that
there is in nature such thing as change
among organized beings actually taking
place, There 1t no such thing on record.
II is shifting the ground from one field
of observation to anothed to make this
statement, and when the assertions 20
so far as to exclude from the domain Of
science those who will not be dragged
into this mire of mere assertion then il
is time to protest" just as vehement
against the humbug of evolution have
been Hugh Miller and Faraday and
Dana and Dawson and Brewster and u
vast multitude of astronomers and scien-
lists in our learned institutions. But a
dozen men in favor of the evolutionist
theory make more noise than thousand
just as able men who utterly reject it.
The Bothnia carried 500 passengers in
safety from New York to Liverpool and
not one of them made any excitement,
but one morning after we had been four
days out the hat and vest and boots of a
passenger were found on deck, showing
that the night before u man had jumped
overheard, and the rest Of tho voyage no
was the one subject of discussion. What
made him jump? When did he jump +?
Did he want TO get back after no had
jumped? Did he go to the bottom, or
did shark catch him? Well, here is
the theory that God made man by the
direct act of his omnipotcucc, aud that
he made the animal creation by the same
act and all the worlds by the same act,
and on board that theory 5000 Ameri-
can and European scientists have taken
passage, and some night ten men jump
overheard into the sea If infidelity and
aesthetic thinking, and the ten men over
board draw out more discussion than the
5000 that do not jump. | am politely
asked to jump with them. Thank you,
gentlemen, am very much obliged, but
| think | shall stick to the old Cunarder.
One tenet of this anti-Bible and anti.
common sense doctrine of evolution de-
mands that one believe what Mr.. Darwin
calls natural selection" and what Mr..
Wallace calls "the survival of the fittest."
BY that they mean that the race has i'm
proved from the fact that the weak die
and the strong live. Those who are the
fittest survive So the breed of sheep
and cattle and horses and men improve.
No need of any religion, but just nat
ural progress. You see that gives God
still further recess from the world BY
spontaneous generation the race was
started, and now by Darwin's natural Sc
lection and Wallace's survival of the fit
test we are to go right on forever in the
ascent. But do tho fittest survive? Gar
field dead in September, Guiteau living
till the following June. Was that the
survival Of the fttest? The glorious
martyrs persisted and their bloody execu-
TONERS lived, survival Of the fttest,
suppose. In our civil war 500 900 North
ern men and 500, 900 Southern men
marched out from their homes to die on
the battlefield for principle Hundreds
and thousands of them fell We stayed
at home in comfortable quarters. Will
we dare to say that they, who sacrificed
all, persisted because they were not as
worthy to live as we who survived No,
no. 1t was not the survival Of the fit
test. Did Ellsworth and Nathaniel Lyon
fall on the Northern side and Albert Sid
ney Johnston and Stoncwall jackson fall
on the other side because they we're not
80 fit TO live as the soldiers who returned
home in safety? No; palsied be the
tongue that darcs to say it, What has
been the history of many OF your iami-
lies? Was it not in many cases the
healthiest physically and tho brightest
intellectually that was taken by death
In many cases Of your observation ID has
been the death of the iittest. In all com
munities it is often the case that many
OF the grandest ana tue most aSciui ana
thc most sublime natures are takcn, whllo
many OF the meanest ana the lowest ana
the West continue 10 snow tiiat inc bipie
Is right and that evolution Is wrong IN
theory | tell you that there has been
no natural progress Wherc Is the morse
driven through any OF our parks worthy
to have the picture OF his neck and eye
and nostril ana launches put beside The
war horse that Job heard nelghing ana
champing the bit Tor the battle. The
pigeons are not as wise as ooo years ago
when they were carriers ana TOOK the
mails as swiftly as our modern express
rall tram. Beside the great beasts that
walked the earth IN olden time modern
elephant Is cat, AMI beside the great
sea monsters that swan the deep the
whale IS mlnnow, the comics have not
learned anything about climbing, nor
the hounds anything about hunting, nor
the ostrich anything about matching, nor
tho condor anything about flying, nor the
owl anything about musical cadences,
for 5000 years.
And as TO our race, wo began with men
ten feet high, and now the average is five
feet three. The ancientS lived 300, 400,
900, 900 years, and the average now Of