Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1898-08-27

ed would lead those who are not special
biologists to suppose that observations
have been made by which it can be in
ferred that there is in nature such a
thing as change among organized beings
actually taking place. There is no such
thing on record. 1t is shifting the
ground of observation from one field Of
observation to another to make this
statement, and when the assertions go
so far as to exclude from the domain of
science those who will not be dragged
into this miro of mere assertion then it
is time to protest. p"
With equal vehemence against the
doctrine of evolution Hugh Miller,
Farraday, Brewster, Dana, Dawson and
hundreds of scientists in this country
and other countries have made protest.
I know that the few men who have
adopted the theory make more noise
than the thousands who have rejected
it. The Bothnia of the Cunard line took
500 passengers safely from New York
to Liverpool. Not one of the 500 made
any excitement. But after we had been
four days out, one morning we found
on deck man. hat and coat and vest
and boots, implying that some one had
jumped overheard. Forthwith we all
began to talk about that one man. There
was more talk about that one man over
board than all the 500 passengers that
rode on in safety "Why did he jump
overboard?'' "I wonder when he jumped
overboard?'' IT wonder if when he
jumped overheard he would liked to
have jumped back again?' 'Iwonder if
q fish caught him or whether he went
clear down to the bottom of the sea:'
And for three or four days aftcrward
we talked about that poor man.
Glorious Theory.
Here is the glorious and magnificent
theory that God by his omnipotent pow
er made man, and by his omnipotent
power made the brute creation, and by
his omnipotent power made all worlds,
and 500 scientists have taken passage
on board that magnificent theory, but
10 or Is have jumped overheard. They
make moro talk than all the 500 that
did not jump. I am politely asked to
jump with them. Thank you, gentle
men, I AIN very much obliged to you. |
think shall stick to the old Cunarder.
If you want to jump overheard, jump
and test for yourselves whether your
hand was really fish's fin, and wheth-
err you were webfooted originally, and
whether your lungs arc swim blad-
der. And as in every experiment there
must be division of labor, some who
experiment and some who observe, you
make the experiment and Twill observe.
There is one tenet of evolution which
it is demanded we adopt, that which
Darwin calls natural selection, " and
that which Wallace called the Survival
of the fittest. BY this they mean that
the human race and the brute creation
are ell the time improving because the
weak die and the strong live. Those
who do not die survive because they are
the fittest. They say the breed of sheep
and cattle and dogs and men is all the
time improving, naturally improving.
No need of God or any Bible or any re-
ligion, but just natural progress.
You see the race started with "spon-
taneous generation, =" and then it goes
right on until Darwin can take us up
with his natural selection, and Wal
lace with his Survival of the fittest, "
and SO we go right on up forever.
Beautiful But do the fittest survive?
Garfield dead in September-Guiteau
surviving until the following June.
Survival of the fittest?'' All, mol The
martyrs, religious and political, dying
for their principles their bloody perse-
cutors living on to old age. Survival
of the fittest?'' Five hundred thousand
brave northern men marching out to
met 500, 900 brave southern men and
die on the battlefield for a principle.
Hundreds of thousands of them went
down into the grave trenches. We
staid at home in comfortable quarters.
Did they die because they were not as
fit to live as we who survived? All, no,
not the Survival of the fittest. :" Ellis
worth and Nathaniel Lyon falling on
the northern side Albert Sidney john
ston and Stonewall Jackson falling on
the southern side. Did they fall be-
cause they were not as fit to live as the
soldiers and the generals who came
back in safety? No. Bitten with the
frosts of the second death be the tongue
that dares utter it, 1t is not the sur
viyal of the fittest
Fittest Do Not Survive.
How has it been in the families of the
world? How was it with the child
physically the strongest, intellectually
the brightest, in disposition the kindest?
Did that child die because it was not as
fit to live as those Of your family that
survived? Not "the survival of the fit
test" In all communities some Of the
noblest, grandest men dying i'll youth or
in midlife, while some of the meanest
and most contemplate live on to old
age. Not the survival of the fittest. ="
But to show you that this doctrine is
antagonistic to the Bible and to common
sense have only to prove to you that
there has been no natural progress
Vast Improvement from another sour
but, mind you, no natural progress.
Where is the fine horse in any of our
parks whose picture of eye and name
and nostril and neck and launches is
worthy of being compared to Jobs pic.
ture of horse as he, thousands of
years ago, heard it paw ard neigh and
champ its bit for the battle: Pigeons of
today not SO wise as the carrier pigeons
of 500 years ago-pigcons that carried
the mails from army to army and from
city to city, me of them flung into the
sky at Rome or Venice landing without
ship or rail train in London. Look at
the great animals that walketh the earth
in olden times-animals compared with
which in size our elephant is cat;
monsters Of olden times that swan the
deep, compared with which our whale
is minnow. Comics have learned moth
ing about climbing and the hounds
nothing about hunting and the ostrich