516 Science and the Bible. [July,
more
than this, that they believed in a personal God. We do not know of a
single work on geology, in our language, that questions this. Mr. Lyell
is denounced by name, in one place, in these volumes, and appears to be
alluded to in the above-cited paragraph. But in his " Principles "
(London, 1850, p. 774), this geologist says: " In whatever direction we
pursue our researches, whether in time or space, we discover,
everywhere, clear proofs of a Creative Intelligence, and of His
foresight, wisdom, and power;" a sentence indicating that the "
World-Problem," to use its own gentle insinuation, " is at variance
with known and indisputable facts." Evidently, however, these pages
were impetuously penned ; for they sound like the passing of a tempest.
" Vestiges of Creation." The
" Six Days of Creation," in its denunciations, partly identified "
infidel geology" with the theory of the " Vestiges of Creation ;" and,
in our reply, we observed that geology, far from sharing in the error,
had proved the development-theory of that work false. Geology, we said,
had found no transitional forms ; and, moreover, had proved that, many
a time, the thread of life had been cut by sweeping catastrophes, each
one enough to blast the hopes of monad-planters ; and, coupling these
facts with the principle from zoology, that in all reproduction, it is
like from like, the theory was shown to be without foundation.
And it is to be noted that in consequence, mainly, of the teachings of
geology, the monad-theory has no advocates in science.
But
the " World-Problem" brings up the question : " Who killed the Vestiges
? " " Who killed the monster ? " and devotes a chapter to this
discussion ; and says: " It may come, in time, to excite as much interest as the famous question of the nursery-book, ivith which we are all familiar," — Who kiUed Cock-Robin?
It
should be remembered that the development-theory of the Vestiges was
introduced into the " Six Days " with favor, though with a Personal
God, to make it go, by putting "immaterial entities," at intervals,
into the earth and wa-
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