The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-12
ANOTHER THEORY.

eFytnlnG connected with tnems is oA
 interest just now, and anything reiat- ing to that subject is not out of place.
 That there are many theories advance ed by many scholars and scientists is not surprising. As no fully satisfac- tory reason or explanation has yet been arrived at to account for these should be differences of opinion, even I among those who should be best uual- | fled to judge. and it is also natural that scholars should differ in their | opinions and conclusions. The subject l is too deep and complicated fer us to expect or hope that even the best
 scholars will agree on a solution.
 As is known, there are some who take the position that this old earth
 is nearing it's final end. When we use the term nearing we of course use 1t as comparative term. for centuries are small periods in the history of ere ation. What these observers claim is l that the earth is gradually wearing itself out, and that the. earthquakes are evidences of this process of disso- l lution, but in recent, Issue of The New York Times there Is an article by Professor R. r. Hnl. who totally | rejects the wearing out theory and says that the earth Is still in pro-
 cess of construction, and that the
 earthquakes are only evidences of
 our planets efforts to shake herself into shape. as It were. But the fol-
 lowing extract fren, his article will
 better explain his theory; --
 l Earthquakes, as terrible as they | may seem when they destroy few l thousand human beings, are but one | of the many manifestations which we
 have of the world at work. and their | full significance is only comprehen- sible to one who has eliminated from his mind the idea that we are living upon a dead and finished planet. That l is not only an old theory, but accord- ing to all the significant indications of
 intelligent science utterly untrus The
 far from, being a dying one. Its ac-
 tivity is eternaL it's physical vitality 1 is as restless and eager as the life Of
 The earth ts in a constant quaver- ing tremor of constructive change. I cannot understand how the superficial
 entisss Rs'in that pT pesrshauakss % and i volcanic
 destruction. The earth is great, ac-
 taining within It's interior potent en-
 ergies ever capable of repeating in
 the future processes which have talk
 sr are % not d destructiSs T tive by any : means: !: they are the growing faculties, that.
 instead of imperiiing the life of the
 earth, establish its indestructibility.
 That is interesting, whatever else
 we may say about it. It is. as The
 Hartford Courant expresses 1t what
 may be called the anthili theory ok
 man and the world that man occupies.
 A heavy man comes along with big
 boots, going on an errand of mercy or
 Of business or of pleasure. and he
 overthrows and crushes 6 dozen ant
 cities if so many lie in his way. He
 has no desire to disturb or injure the
 ants-perhaps takes no notice of their
 little houses so laboriously and cars-
 fully built. All that he does is mere-
 ly to pursue his own path for the acc
 csmplishnnent of his own affairs. If
 ants and ant cities already occupy the
 path that he follows. so much the
 worse for the ants and their cities. He
 thinks nothing of them or their work
 --does not observe even their exist
 ence-but is wholly absorbed in his
 own plans and the quickest execution
 of these plans. He has work to dc-
 perhaps. debts to pay, or a house to
 build, or feast to attend-and so he
 goes on mindless of all lesser crea-
 lures that happen to come under his l1eet."
 And as we might say that if we
 substitute man for the ants and the
 earth for man we can imagine that
 the earth is going its own road with
 out regard to the puny human beings who. may be crushed out of it's path
 is the ancient city of Antioch. The historian Gibbon tells us that in the
 year 52e of our era that city was wis ited by an earthquake which killed a 1 halr mllnon people, put IL nau suk- fered one or two severe shocks before that date, and sixty years later wal visited by another; yet Antioch still survives and is considerable city.
 And so. to again quote from The Courant, If one drops the short views ! taught by the schoolmen, and takes this single history of Antioch so far as this history is known 1t looks some , thing like an anthill process. does fl not? Professor Hill says that the ! earth Is continually at work in this } fashion-'quake movements, more or { less imperceptible, are going on all the time in many places every day; , and he says that all this movement is
 constructive-buildIng and rebuilding
 and that no limit can be placed upon the process. He describes man as 2 mere parasite on the earth, but we } will not go quite so far as that. Il is enough to say that the relation ol } man to the earth Is very much like that of the ant to man. AnotheI } common and singular fact about thS , ant and man is that both keep going ! They do not yield-they do not give up-they hold their nerve, pick them-