Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-06-19


seen at their best at a hacienda, on the occa-
sion of the annual herradero, when the
young bulls are driven in from the plains,
thrown down and marked with a hot iron
with the initials of their proprietors' names.
Friends and neighbors come together from
afar and vie with one another in the display
of deXterity and horsemanship.
ABSURDITY OF THE LOGIC OF EVOLUTION.
The wider study Of nature makes it in
creasingly apparent that nature does moth
ing per saltanl. There is no progress along
an orderly line. What it shall be called is
the rising question. Call it evolution and
unless words are constantly hedged, it car
ries with it the idea either of the eternity
or the self creation of the universe. On the
other hand, call it development and there
is harmony between the facts and the Word,
and harmony between the theory and rev.
elation. Religion clings tenaciously to the
dant in the Bible, as on other shores Of
thought. And evolution is Objectionable
only because the word seems to commit
those who use it to the theory of the eter-
nifty of matter, and so of the evolutionary
process.
And Mr.. Herbert Spencer does stand so
committed, however, some OF his conces-
sions may seem to be at varience with the
theory. He says: Prospecting the origin
of the universe, three verbally intelligent
may be made. We may as
sert that it is self-existent, or that it is self
created, or that it is created by external
agency" Of these alternatives he accepts
the first, regarding the second as involving
an absurdity. Of course that rules God out.
If matter is not eternal, then we may from
its existence and operations judge some
thing of a Being who at least may have
formed it. We may argue from the crea-
tion to the Creator. But what chance is
there for this if the existence of the uni
verse runs parallel to any God who may be
supposed to exist? It were then just as
logical to infer the Creator from the uni
verse, as to infer the universe from the
Creator.
Yet Mr.. Spencer does assert an omnipres-
ent power: ave are obliged to regard
every phenominon as manifestation Of
some power by which we are acted upon."
The idea pervades his philosophy that there
may be a God, and that indeed, the phe-
nomina of nature affirm as much, while,
however, He must forever be incompre-
hensible to us. But how can an eternal
nature affirm anything whatever of an eter-
nal God? For aught that appears, nature
may have evolved God, instead of God
creating nature. No argument of cause and
effect whatever can hold where two parallel
external existences are concerned. How
ever, therefore, Mr.. Spencer sometimes en-
deavors to shield his philosophy from the
charge of atheism, it is manifest that 1T
certainly furnishes no basis for theism. If
it does not exclude God, the least that can
be said is that it offers no logical defense OF
the belief in God. However intricate and
wonderful the Operations of nature, it is
illogical to infer from them an intelligence
outside of them, if they have been eternal
ly operative. An eternal evolution can
take care of itself. Given a self-Operating
and self-improving machine, with all its
past eternity to work in, and no limit can
be placed to it's possibilities.
At this point the logic of evolution be-
comes aggressive and proves too much. Dr.
w. D. Wilson, in his volume of lectures on
"Foundations of religious Belief" puts it
very we'll when he says: "1f the present
order of things had no beginning, evolution
must have produced Supreme Being be-
fore this time" The thorough-going evo-
lutionist, believing in the enternity of mat.
ter and its constant progress, is presented
with this dilemma: Either nature has not
always worked, or it has. If it has, then
the present stage of development should
long ago have been passed. For however
slow the process Of selection and survival,
given all eternity for the process, and 1T
must in ages gone have reached its highest
point, viz, the production Of a supreme eX-
istence. SlOwneSS of operation makes no
difference when eternity is in the theater.
And those possibilities to which evolution
lists point us, by which in the future finer
orders of beings than any we know about,
will be evolved, should have been realized
in an indefinite past time. For if the pro-
cess has been working from all eternity,
and has resulted in only what we see what
hope could naturally be based on any future
time, even though it were future eternity?
If evolution is doing this thing, and has
always been doing it, plainly it has done too
little to be the basis for any arguments as
to the future.
If to escape this horn, it be affirmed that
nature has always existed, but has not al
ways been working-if energy is not con-
with eXistence-then whence
came the energy? Assuming the eternal
existence of matter is an easy way of solv-
ing the question how matter came to be.
A similar assumption as to force, settles
that point. But assume the matter and
leave out the force, it becomes evident the
beginning of the force has to be accounted
for. An eternally slumbering mass of mat
ter affords no explanation. 1t must have
come a6 ertra. But whence? From some
other power. There perhaps is room for
Spencer's UnknoWable. Certainly some
thing or persons must be supposed. But II
a God be supposed in order to introduce
working force, then why not introduce Him
at one earlier stage, as the author of matter?
Nothing is lost by that earlier assumption,
o,,l fbo oc the
universe then has an Ineligible reason;
and we are relieved from the various alb
Surdities into which we are plunged by as
suming two independent, eternal and ne
cesSary eXistences, eternal matter and eter-
nal God.-Chicago Interior.
WHERE DOES COAL OIL COME FROM
the subject. Some have thought that the
oils have been produced by slow dIstilla-
ton during the process Of coal formation.
fatal objection, however, to this theory,
is found in the fact that Great Britain has
immense coal-beds, containing nothing of
this kind, though supposed traces have been
found here and there.
The Siberian and Devonian rocks, which
contain sources of the most of the oil-Wells
now in existence, have great quantities of
fossil remains, and this has suggested the
theory that the oils have resulted from
their decomposition.
Professor Mendejeff thinks that, on the
first formation of the earth, vast reservoirs
of inorganic iron and carbon existed in the
interior of the globe. These were reached
by the water condensing on the newly
formed land percolating beneath its surface.
The heat decomposed the water into it's
parts, oxygen and hydrogen, the
A ref fnrminr with the iron OXIDE Of iron
other hydrocarbons. If this theory be the
correct one, there still exists in the center
tlaa rtl roca,:1.a;,., of ,,atsoloil1aa that