The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-09-02

jected it. The Bufhnia Of the -ctnard
line too 500 passengers safely from
New FORK to Liverpool. Not OF the
500 made any excitement But after We
had been four DAYS OUT one
We found on a deck a mans hat n
coat and vest and boots. implying that
some one had jumped overheard.
Forthwith we all began to talk about
one man. There-WaS- more talk about
that one man overheard than all the
$50 passengers that rede- on in safety.
Why did he jump overboard?" Il
wonder when he jumped overheard"
Il wonde IL when he jumped over
board he would liked to have jumped
back again." Il wonder il a fish
caught shfmaor whether he went clear
down sto-the bottom Of the "a? And
for three or our days afterward We
talked" about that poor man. N>A
A GLORIOUS THEORY
= Here is the glorious and magnificent
theory that God by his somnipotent
power made man, and by his omnipo-
tent power made the brute creation,
and by his -omnipotent power made all
worlds. and 500 scientists have aiken
passage on board that magnificent
theory, but 10 or Is have jumped
overheard. They make more talk than
all the 500 that did not jump. ]: am
politely asked to jump with them.
Thank you, gentlemen, I am very
much obliged to you. l think L shall
stick to the, old Cunarder. II you want
to jump overheard, jump and test for
yourselves whether your hand was
really a fish's fin, and whether you
were webfooted originally. and -wheth-
er your lungs are a swim bladder And
as in every experiment there must be
a division of labor. some who expert
Inent. and some who observe, you
make the experiment and Twill OBJ
serve ~ -~- z-~
There is one tenet of evolution which
it is demanded we adopt, that which
Darwin calls natural selection and
thai which Wallace called the "suryi-
val Of the. fittest.", By this they, mean
that the human race and the brute
creation are all the time improving
because the. weak die and the strong
live, Those who do not die survive be-
cause they are the 5fttest. 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. religion, but just,
natural progress. g 81 ,.a .
= 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
his survival of the :fittest,"
and so we go. right on up forever.
Beautiful But do the fittest survive?
Garfield e in September-Guiteau
surviving until the following June.
"Survival of the fittest?' All, no! The
martyre, religious and political, dying
for their principles, their bloody perse-
cutorS living on ato-old age. Survival
of the !fttest?" Five hundre 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? Ah, 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 to the
tongue that dares utter it. 1t is not the
survival 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
NAAG IL 0lopoolIlOh klIC ~
est? Did hat child die because it was
not as fit to live as those of your fam
lily that survived? Not the survival
of the fittest." In all communities some
of the nOblest, grandest men dying in
youth OF in midlife, while some of the
meanes and most contemplate live
on to old age. Not "the survival Of the
fittest."
But to show you that this doctrine is
~ ~ r;~<.o - 49, IL --l
MOI sense I nave only to prove to you
that there has been no natural pro-
gress. Vast Improvement from anoth-
er source, 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 compar-
ed to Job picture of a horse as he,
thousands of years ago, heard it paw
and neigh and champ it's bit for the
battle? Pigeons of today not so wise
as the carrier pigeonstof 500 years ago
pigeons that carried the mails from
army to army and from city to city,
n of them flung into the sky at
Rome or Venice landing without ship
or rail train in London. Look at the
great animals that valketh the earth
IN olden times-animals compared with
which in size u elephant is a3tats
monsters of aolden times that swan the
deep, compared with which our whale
is a minneW. Comics have - learned
nothing about climbing and the hounds
nothing about hunting and the ostrich
nothing about Matching and the condor
nothing about flying and the owl MOTH
ing about musical cadences for 5000
years. Not, a particle OF. progress q
And, as to the human race, so far as
mere natural progress is concerned.
once there We're men 10 feet high: now
the average is about 5 and 6 inches. Tt
started with men living 200, 400 800, 900
years, and now 80 years is more than
the average of human life. Mighty
progress We have made. haven't we? j
| Went-into the cathedral at York, Eng
land, and the best. artists in, England
had just been painting a window in
that cathedral. and, right beside it was
a window painted 400 years. ago, land
there is not a man on earth but would
say that the. modern painting of: the
window by. the best artists of England
| is not worthy of being compared with
the painting of 400. years g right be-
side it. Vast improvement, as l shall