New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-01-06


G Parkes Cadman. series of lectures
dc,ivnred before the Brooklyn institute
of Arts and Sciences during the autumn
Of 1910. 12mo., np. tx, ga. Inc IhsIl"
Press
Resides Darwin, four authors are
chosen for consideration by Mr.. Cad
man: Huxley, John Stuart MIL James
Nartineau and Matthew Arnold, worth
les concerning whom there has been Tor
these many years no noticeable dearth
of critical judgments. DR.. Cadman is
content with a softer key, and he asks
only TO tell over the careers Of his phil
osophers. to lay open their central doc
trines. and to set forth tho significance
Of the same so far as the utterances
may he said to have affected religious
thought. In recalling bygone debates
the author takes a sagaCious way N
serving the puzzled Churchmen Of the
present day, for If Darwins generation
bore the brunt of Inconvenience at
tendant upon the incursion Of unfamil-
lar notions about the origin Of things.
the heart OF the children has not been
entirely untred by the toll OF theology
cal reconstruction. 1t may he that every
living age is bound to he a period of
transition, and that an ineXorable PEN
atty is the portion Of those persons VINO,
while in due humbleness desiring to be
modern in mind, are nevertheless not
quite prepared to give the immortal soul
her congo.
without waving Interior problems Of
descent, DR.. Cadman pays attention to
the engaging facts of Darwin's immedi-
ate lineage. Charless father was the
leading physician Of Shrewsbury. Eras-
mus, the Grandfather, also a physician
was the well-knOwn author of "Io6-
nomia; or, The Laws Of Organic Life" a
minor attempt to follow the lead of Lu-
cretius in his DE Natura Rerum."
Darwin's mother was a daughter Of
Josiah Wedgwood. II is recalled of Mrs
WedgWood that she was one Of re-
markable bevy Of sisters, Of whom two
married Wedgwoods One married Sir
James Macintosh, the philosopher. and
another married the historian SismCndl.
Following the progress Of Darwin's in
yestigations, Dr. Cadman dwells on the
opposition offered by naturalists as well
as by theoogians to a new outlook
which threatened the very foundations OF
faith. BY them the defence Of the cos
mogony attributed TO Moses was felt TO
be Of a piece with the conserving Df
spiritual principles, the latter being in
eytrcably woven with the dogma Of di-
rect creation. Now that the contro-
versy IL over we can see how baseless
were our fathers fears. Far from
lessening the wonder Of the world Or
diminishing the religious impulse, the
evolutionary Interpretation OF the uni
verse does but enhance the motives Of
reverence. If in some scientists the doc
trinc has taken materialstic directions,
the fault is not with the massive yet
modest intellect Of Darwin. TO say with
our author that Darwin created TeVo-
luton which has had no equal In the In
tellectual history Of the modern world
since the Renaissance and the RefOrma-
ton would seem to call for too perempt-
ory dismissal OF Emmanuel Kant,
whose names might well he affronted at
the verdict, the more SO that, having
made the claim, DR.. Cadman proceeds
10 confess that Darwin had no marked
gifts for metaphysics. Honors in plenty
remain for the Shropshire scholar who
as we are reminded, gave conference and
meaning TO inchoate accommodations u
natural knowledge
lie stimulated research and mapped out
the lines on which il could intelligently
proceed 10 ascrrtainnble ends 70
Darwin belongs the uHspcakabe merit OF
inOculating his own and future generations
with the idea OF progressive development.
The statesman, the social reformer ana the
thculugidn have been touched with new