The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1920-10-01

World In an uproar; and though the
eight vas largely confined to the in
teilectual classes. II was waged with
al the more bitterness from the knowl-
edge that It's outcome would have
very farreaching effects on people
who never heard OF Charles Darwin
or Protoz0.
The old theology which our grand
parents knew could only account for
q few thousand years OF the worlds
History: seven or eight. at the most.
Along came science with proofs dug
oar 81 gravel beds. cody talking of
the eaFth's age In terms of millions
al years. What was TO become of
the hrst chapter Of Genesis? II that
wns conceded TO be legendary. or at
least allegoricaI. what was TO pre-
vent challenge OF other chapters and
books7 So theology fell foul Of sci
snce and all day long the noise Of
battle rolled. =.
Confined as Il was. mainly to the
libraries. the pulpits. the platforms.
the publishing houses. the UNIVERSE
ties. aud the seminaries. this conflict
vas. nevertheless. the big fight. of the
iath century. II was that century's
contribution TO the liberation of the
human mind. II broke out about 1859.
with the publication of Darwin's
origin OF Species. and ragged for two
decades or more. The history of that
period Is strewn with the wreckage,
debris. exploded guns. corpses of slain
regulations. and shattered arhcitec-
ture OF traditional ideas. Theology
holly denied. Science calmly affirm
ed. Even unequipped with proofs,
calm affirmation always has the better
OF Il.
Time IL the referee. II cools all
passions. decides all arguments,
buries the vanquished. and turns even
on the victor IT'S smile of irony. For
does not Time know that the victor,
too. in some sort or other. is destined
10 be vanquIshed by a new insurgent?
What irony there is in the thought
Of all these furious passions of sixty
years ago over a matter which was,
az bottom. scientific-purely a ques-
ton Of fact. Those facts are now
universally admitted among people
whose business IL is to know. And
although a good many bigwigs had
10 take back-water or went to their
graves denying them and predicting
the end OF organized society il they
we're ever generally accepted. this
body Of facts carved its pathway into
the human understanding as placidly
and irresistibly as a glacier moves
down a mountainside. Science
won its victory. And the skies did
not fall.
Science and theology get on anna
bly, enough today. Theology discov-
cred In its hour of defeat, that its
true citadel. the spiritual life of man,
had been untouched by all the gun
iire Of the scientific artillery. What
had been shot away was useless lum-
Der which had impeded theology it.
self in its true spiritual ministry.
And science, which had entered the
combat with the youthful arrogance
OF conscious power. learned that It
had limitations and moderated the
pitch OF its pretensions. 1t neither
destroyed nor explained away the
spiritual value of life. If anything,
II enhanced them.
Even in the midst of that battle of
the lS6Os and EOS there were a few
people (as there always are). who
knew that IL need not be and would
not be a duel to the death of one side
or the other. Samuel Butler was one
OF them. and whoever wishes to con-
suit a handbook of good conduct in
an age OF revolutionary strife can do
so in his three novels: Erewhon,
Erewhon Revisited and The Way of
AL Flesh.
So hot they were in their day of
battle. and now so still. The
Did idea lost; the new idea won; and
~et the world goes on eating. Aeep-
ng. working, and playing. and the
'kies do not fall Emotions, angry
passions. name-calling did not influ-
ence the final decision. 1t was a
question OF fact. and fact decided 1t. |
The Intellectual fossil has no chance
lgainst the gravel-bed fossil.
Does II occur to us that the wran.
giles which beset our own age may be.
quite as much. questions of fact, and
that, when all our blows are spent
and our passions cooled. these dis.