The Irish standard., 1903-05-23
STORY OF THR PR0Y0PLAsH,
Address by Judge Corrigan to Cath
Ollie Foresters.

At meeting Of st. Mary's court,
Catholic Order of Foresters of this
city, held on the evening of April 90,
Judge j. II. Corrigan entertained a
large and appreciative audience with
an able and scholarly address, taking
for his subject THE True Story of
the Protoplasm.' Judge Corrigan
spoke as follows.
Since the beginning of history, all
mankind. so far as known, have been
interested in the origin of things.
Certain reflective members of the
genus have in the course Of ages
given expression to various theories
regarding this origin. The Hebraic
idealists state their conclusion upon
the subject in Genesis; the Greeks
through the philosophical writings of
Plato, Aristotle and others; the Ro-
mans, through Seneca and others; and
finally. the Anglo-Saxon through OAR
win, Tyndall, Huxley, Lyell and 9th
ers. No final reliable theory has been
reached, though among the ultra sci
entitic caste of today there is a pretty
general adherence to the doctrine of
evolution.
Now, the doctrine of evolution in it's
ultimate premise or holding conceives
that all life, as we understand it, on
this earth, began with protopasm,
that earliest and most simple volunta-
~ movement in matter, without form,
excepting as to segregated cells, and
without amy apparent objective pur-
pose; that ultimate theory, however,
preSuppoSeS that at some stage of ere
alton there must have been an intrn-
ton expressed in action by some great
power which had the ability and the
will to formulate law of matter
which in turn produced this beginning
OF life. Those thinkers who have OBJ
posed the evolution theory from it's
first PRONUNCIATION have insisted that
dicatcS that there have been from
time to time since the gathering of
the earth into its present FORM great
commissions and cataclysnls which for
greater or lesser periods have destroy
cd all previous living things ON the
surface of the earth or i'm the waters
thereof
The evolutionists meet or attempt To
meet this argument 10y countcrstatc-
ment THAT the geological history of the
earth does not of itself provo that there
has been amy entire cataclysm: they
maintain that each cataclysm,so called
will bear the same modification
that the Nonhic dclugc bears; they
maintain that this dcluge, uvrrrcd by
the llebrnic idcalists to he entire, was
in fact but partial, being no doubt the
sinking down of Il large Pacific contiu-
ent ana the rising contemporaneously
of the Asiatic continent, accompanied,
us would be natural, by great humidity
:
of the atmosphere and Il consequent
d0wlM'Our of rain. which the aunaliSt
miStoOk for the direct cause Of the vast
volume of water. which flooded the
original home of his particular branch
of the human race. Absolute proof
of these divergent premises from which
n I
follow seems to he beyond the power of
either branch of scientists; as for my
self, 1t seems natural and extremely
probable that some OF the earlier cata-
clysms were universal, ana 1t does not
seem to me to be unreasonable to pre-
sumo that the great law of generation
or creation was and is continuous in
its action upon matter, and that mat
ter continued and still continues to re-
SpOnd TO this impulse in a greater or
less degree according to its fecundity
and the necessity for new forms for
special uses
In the formation of different species
consccutivcly as well as contemporary
colsly from the beginning of time until
the end thereof as applied to this par
ticulnr world, do not see anything i'll
congruous, nor do | OH the other hand
deny or attempt to deny that evolution
is a correct principle and that it's np-
| plicntlOn to every original species 70.
suits in bringing that species to Il
max imum point Of individuality, but
| deny for myself the ultimate
theory THAT every creation had in it
self from the beginning the possible
tiles of the genus man. maintain
that all of the theories or rather all
of the facts upon which all of Tho
theories are based point to the conclu
sion that the surface of the earth in
Guiding the air envelope surrounding il
has undergone continuous chcmica
changes as we'll as surface revolutions
which materially affected both the in
cipicncy and the subsequent m0ldint
and evolution of distinct species bOti
comtrllpornncOusly and cOnsccutively
That the original inpuls" or law Of ere
alton. originating as II great body OF
men believe. from the will of the Great
Creator when applied to these differing
conditions of the surface and chem
irnl properties of the air and liquids
would produce different species having
in their incpirncy great similarity OF