Part 3

XI.

PARALLELS AND PRECEDENTS.

(Germs.)

Assumption of adult Development at Creation--Its Reasonableness--The Position waived--Assumption of the Germ-Hypothesis--Double Cocoa-nut--Coral Tree--Tulip--Earth-pea--Mangrove--Medusa--Connexion of Germs with Parent--In Echinoderms--In Annelids--In Insects--Egg of Butterfly--Of Nut Weevil--Of Bots--Of Ichneumon--Of Pill Chafer--Of Gall-fly--Of Lace-fly--Of Spider--Of Gipsy Moth--Of Coccus--Of Saw-fly--Of Cockroach--Of Dirt-dauber--Metamorphosis of Star-fish--Eggs attached to Brachionus--Viviparous Progeny of Rotifer--Of Asplanchna--Of Daphnia--Egg-purse of Shark--Economy of Surinam Toad--Egg of Fowl--Foetus of Kangaroo--Umbilicus 292-334

XII.

THE CONCLUSION.

Uniformity of Results--Prochronism of Organic Nature--Phenomena inadequate to settle Chronology--Historic Testimony alone oracular--Familiar Illustration--Objections met--Analogy between an Organism and a World--Illustration from a Tree--Analogy between the Life of a Species and that of an Individual--History Divinely Projected--Grand Plan of Nature--Diachronic Existence not necessary--Deceptive Phenomena inseparable from Created Organisms--Illustrations abundant--Hypothesis of the Life-history of the Globe--Supposition of 1857 being the Era of Creation--What its State?--Minuteness and Verity of Proofs of Life present no Difficulty--Coprolites--Faecal Residua in newly-created Animals--Cyclical not Organic Condition the Test of Prochronism--Illustrations from the inorganic World--Rivers--Ocean Currents--Celestial Bodies--Velocity of Light--Records of Entities actually passed--"No Tree has Leaves"--Plates of Testudinaria--Leaf-scars of Palm--Column of Nerita--Spines of Murex--Madreporic Plate of Cribella--Hilum of Seed--Navel of Mammal--Argument of "Great and Small"--Old Hypothesis of Lusus Naturae--Demonstration of a Law--Effect of this Principle on the Study of Geology--Summing up 335-372

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Geological Section of Yorkshire 35 Calymene Blumenbachii 41 Cephalaspis 44 Labyrinthodon 57 Snake-necked Marine Lizards 59 Megalosaurus Bucklandi 61 Bat-lizards 62 Hylaeosaurus armatus 63 Mammoth 74 Moho 84 Germination of Scarlet-runner 114 Diagram of Bean 116 " Fern 117 " Hawkmoth 119 " Polype 120 " Cow 121 Leaf-scars of Tree-fern 132 Roots of Iriartea 139 Traveller's Tree 148 Corm of Gladiolus 153 Section of Lily-bulb 157 Testudinaria 159 Encephalartos 162 Twig of Tulip-tree 167 Young Plant of Loranthus 171 Silk-cotton Tree 175 Section of Exogenous Tree 179 Muricated Madrepore 185 Organ-pipe 187 Comatula and Young 194 Serpula 200 Goliath Beetle and Pupa case 206 Larva of Case-fly 209 Melicerta 210 Lepas 218 Botryllus 224 Clavagella 226 Dione Veneris 228 Murex tenuispina 233 Scale of Gilt-head 242 Plates of Tortoise 251 Growth of a Feather 254 Horns of Stag 258 Skull of Babiroussa 262 Skull of Hippopotamus 265 Skull of Elephant 267 Growth of Hair 278 Section of Human Tooth 282 Garden Tulip 298 Germination of Earth-pea 300 Seed of Mangrove 303 Lace-fly and Eggs 312 Brachionus with Eggs 322 Pregnant Asplanchna 323 Hen's Egg 329 Gyroceras 371

THE CAUSE.

"Is there not a cause?"--1 SAM. xvii. 29.

An eminent philosopher has observed that "nothing can be more common or frequent than to appeal to the evidence of the senses as the most unerring test of physical effects. It is by the organs of sense, and by these alone, that we can acquire any knowledge of the qualities of external objects, and of their mutual effects when brought to act one upon another, whether mechanically, physically, or chemically; and it might, therefore, not unreasonably be supposed, that what is called the evidence of the senses must be admitted to be conclusive, as to all the phenomena developed by such reciprocal action.

"Nevertheless, the fallacies are numberless into which those are led who take what they consider the immediate results of sensible impressions, without submitting them to the severe control and disciplined analysis of the understanding."

If this verdict is confessedly true with regard to many observations which we make on things immediately present to our senses, much more likely is it to be true with respect to conclusions which are not "the immediate results of sensible impressions," but are merely deduced by a process of reasoning from such impressions. And if the direct evidence of our senses is to be received with a prudent reserve, because of this possibility of error, even when we have no evidence of an opposing character, still more necessary is the exercise of caution in judging of facts assumed to have occurred at a period far removed from our own experience, and which stand in contradiction (at least apparent, prima facie, contradiction) to credible historic testimony. Nay, the caveat acquires a greatly intensified force, when the testimony with which the assumed facts are, or seem to be, at variance, is no less a testimony than His who ordained the "facts," who made the objects of investigation; the testimony of the Creator of all things; the testimony of Him who is, from eternity to eternity, "[Greek: HO APSEUDES THEOS]"!

I hope I shall not be deemed censorious in stating my fear that those who cultivate the physical sciences are not always sufficiently mindful of the "Humanum est errare." What we have investigated with no little labour and patience, what we have seen with our eyes many many times, in many aspects, and under many circumstances, we naturally believe firmly; and we are very prone to attach the same assurance of certainty to the inferences we have, bona fide, and with scrupulous care to eliminate error, deduced from our observations, as to the observations themselves; and we are apt to forget that some element of error may have crept into our actual investigations, and still more probably into our deductions. Even if our observations be so simple, so patent, so numerous, as almost to preclude the possibility of mistake in them, and our process of reasoning from them be without a flaw, still we may have overlooked a principle, which, though perhaps not very obvious, ought to enter into the investigation, and which, if recognised, would greatly modify our conclusions.

In this volume I venture to suggest such a principle to the consideration of geologists. It will not be denied that Geology is a science that stands peculiarly in need of being cultivated with that salutary self-distrust that I have above alluded to. Though a strong and healthy child, it is as yet but an infant. The objects on which its senses have been exercised, its [Greek: ta blepomena], are indeed plain enough and numerous enough, when once discovered; but the inferences drawn from them, its [Greek: bebaia], find their sphere in the most venerably remote antiquity,--an antiquity mensurable not by years or centuries, but by secula seculorum. And the dicta, which its votaries rest on as certitudes, are at variance with the simple literal sense of the words of God.

I am not assuming here that the Inspired Word has been rightly read; I merely say that the plain straightforward meaning, the meaning that lies manifestly on the face of the passages in question, is in opposition with the conclusions which geologists have formed, as to the antiquity and the genesis of the globe on which we live.

Perhaps the simple, superficial sense of the Word is not the correct one; but it is at least that which its readers, learned and unlearned, had been generally content with before; and which would, I suppose, scarcely have been questioned, but for what appeared the exigencies of geological facts.

Now while there are, unhappily, not a few infidels, professed or concealed, who eagerly seize on any apparent discrepancy between the works and the Word of God, in order that they may invalidate the truth of the latter, there are, especially in this country, many names of the highest rank in physical (and, among other branches, in geological) science, to whom the veracity of God is as dear as life. They cannot bear to see it impugned; they know that it cannot be overthrown; they are assured that He who gave the Word, and He who made the worlds, is One Jehovah, who cannot be inconsistent with Himself. But they cannot shut their eyes to the startling fact, that the records which seem legibly written on His created works do flatly contradict the statements which seem to be plainly expressed in His word.

Here is a dilemma. A most painful one to the reverent mind! And many reverent minds have laboured hard and long to escape from it. It is unfair and dishonest to class our men of science with the infidel and atheist. They did not rejoice in the dilemma; they saw it at first dimly, and hoped to avoid it. At first they believed that the mighty processes which are recorded on the "everlasting mountains" might not only be harmonized with, but might afford beautiful and convincing demonstrations of Holy Scripture. They thought that the deluge of Noah would explain the stratification, and the antediluvian era account for the organic fossils.

As the "stone book" was further read, this mode of explanation appeared to many untenable; and they retracted their adherence to it. To a mind rightly constituted, Truth is above every thing: there is no such thing as a pious fraud; the very idea is an impious lie: God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all; and that religion which can be maintained only by dissembling or denying truth, cannot proceed from "Him that is Holy, Him that is True," but from him who "is a liar, and the father of it."

Many upright and ardent cultivators of the young science felt that truth would be compromised by a persistence in those explanations which had hitherto passed current. The discrepancy between the readings in Science and the hitherto unchallenged readings in Scripture, became manifest. Partisans began to array themselves on either side; some, jealous for the honour of God, knew little of science, and rushed into the field ill-prepared for the conflict; some, jealous for science, but little conversant with Scripture, and caring less for it, were willing to throw overboard its authority altogether: others, who knew that the writings were from the same Hand, knew therefore that there must be some way of reconciling them, and set themselves to find it out.

Have they succeeded? If I thought so, I would not publish this book. Many, I doubt not, have been convinced by each of the schemes by which the discrepant statements have been sought to be harmonized. Each of them has had sufficient plausibility to convince its propounder; and, probably, others too. And some of them have attained a large measure of public confidence. Yet if any one of them is true, it certainly has not commanded universal assent. Let us examine how far they agree among themselves, who propose to reconcile Scripture and Science, "the Mosaic and the Mineral Geologies."

And first, it is, perhaps, right to represent the opinions of those who stand by the literal acceptation of the Divine Word. There have been some, indeed, who refuse to entertain the question of reconciliation, taking the high ground that, as the Word of God is and must be true, it is impious to set any evidence in competition with it. I cannot but say, my sympathies are far more with these than with those who, at the opposite pole of the argument, would make scientific deduction paramount, and make the Word go to the wall. But, then, we ought to be quite sure that we have got the very Word of God; and, so far from being impious, it seems highly proper and right, when conflicting evidence appears to flow out of what is indubitably God's work, to examine afresh the witnesses on both sides, that we may not make either testify what it does not.

Those good men who merely denounce Geology and geologists, I do not quote. There are the facts, "written and engraven in stones," and that by the finger of God. How can they be accounted for?

Some have recourse to the assumption that the natural processes by which changes in the earth's surface are now going on, may have operated in antediluvian times with a rapidity and power of which we can form little conception from what we are cognisant of. The Rev. J. Mellor Brown takes this ground, adducing the analogies of steam-power and electricity, as effecting in a few moments or hours, what formerly would have required several days or weeks to accomplish.

"God's most tremendous agencies may have been employed in the beginning of his works. If, for instance, it should be conceded that the granitic or basaltic strata were once in a state of fusion, there is no reason why we should not call in the aid of supposition to produce a rapid refrigeration. We may surround the globe with an atmosphere (not as yet warmed by the rays of the newly kindled sun) more intensely cold than that of Saturn. The degree of cold may have been such as to cool down the liquid granite and basalt in a few hours, and render it congenial to animal and vegetable life; while the gelid air around the globe may have been mollified by the abstracted caloric."