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may be buried in the breaks of the strata, Professor Agassiz replies: "However long and frequent the breaks in the geological series may be in which they would bury their transition types, there are many points in the succession where the connection is perfectly distinct and unbroken; and it is just at these points that new organic groups are introduced without any intermediate forms to link them with the preceding ones."

There are four great gaps in the gradation between man and matter: First, that between dead and living matter. This Mr. Darwin bridges over by owning the Creator. Second, the gap between the vegetable and the animal. This he also bridges by owning the creation of separate types for each kingdom. Third, that between any species of organism and any other. This Mr. Darwin undertook to bridge by his theory. But as his bridge timbers are very short, the chasm must be narrowed to a very short gap. But when the great geological convulsions came, sweeping away scores of species and families, and beginning the world's life with new and often totally different species, Mr. Darwin's theory is unable to leap such gaps. There are at least four of such geological chasms, impassable by the theory. Fourth, the greatest gap of all is between the unreasoning animal and the intellectual and moral nature of man. Some futile attempts have been made to find the missing link between man's body and that of the apes; but no one has seriously proposed to bridge the chasm between the mere animal and the reasonable soul of man. Even Professor Tyndall acknowledges that "here yawns an immense gap which it is impossible to bridge over." These gaps break the chain. They are fatal to the theory of genealogical succession.

Summing up the whole bearing of the fossils of the Methods of Study, p. 5.

Silurian system upon the Darwinian theory, M. Barraude declares: "We have now established as the direct result of our studies, that direct observation contradicts radically all previsions of palæontological theories on the subject of the composition of the first phases of the primordial fauna of the Silurian.

"In fact, the special study of each of the zoological elements which constitute these phases has demonstrated to us that the theoretic previsions are in complete discordance with the facts observed by paleontology.

"These discordances are so numerous, and so pronounced, that the composition of the real fauna seems to have been calculated by design for contradicting everything which the theories teach us respecting the first appearance and primitive evolution of the forms of animal life upon the earth." Undoubtedly God so designed it.

Such is the verdict given upon the geological evidence of Darwinism by the greatest living geologist in Europe. It is fatal. The great past to which Mr. Darwin appeals casts his theory from its waters, a broken wreck, upon the shore of time.

IV. Natural Selection is an Utter Failure.

This is the very heart and life of Darwinism. Natural selection is Mr. Darwin's deity; his substitute for Providence; his one, only, all-sufficient force for the elevation of the snail to the dignity of manhood. In his estimation it rests upon self-evident facts. The mere statement of three or four propositions about the variability of individuals, the struggle for existence, and the survival of the fittest, ought to convince everybody that natural selection is omnipotent. But he devotes his book to the illustration and defense of these propositions in condescension to the ignorance and prejudice of mankind. If he fails in establishing natural selection, his whole theory must fall with the foundation. Now I propose to prove

that natural selection is a failure. It is lame in both legs -the right leg is variation; the left, the struggle for existence. There is no such indefinite variability of animals as Mr. Darwin demands and asserts; and if there were, no such accidental variations as he describes could ever produce the multitude of the contrivances of nature coordinated to the common good. Nor can the struggle for existence ever elevate any race. It is always a degrading agency. Yet Mr. Darwin employs this leadenwinged diver to raise all creation up to the highest heaven he can conceive-their elevation to the rank of the higher animals.

The notion of a sufficient number of accidental small profitable variations happening in the same place to successive generations of animals, all in the same direction, for the production of even an improved breed, to say nothing about such a work as the construction of an eye, is too improbable for belief. It involves such a number of improbabilities that we cannot attempt to enumerate them all. We can only glance at some of the greatest. Any one of these is enough to render the theory unworthy of belief; but the credulity which can swallow them all need not hesitate at any other superstition.

1. Natural Selection is not a Productive Force; it cannot Create, but only Preserve, and therefore cannot Populate the World.

This

By the very terms of his definition Mr. Darwin excludes natural selection from originating anything, even the most minute feather or hair, or the tint of a shade of color. All variations must be made ready to its hand, and then, but not till then, it can select the best. dignified neutrality is quite inconsistent with the language repeatedly used by Mr. Darwin, ascribing to it active force, and with the whole tenor of his book, which ascribes to it the elevation of all the higher animals from

their original germs. But let it be borne in mind that the real active force in his theory is, accidental variation. And the question for us to decide is, whether accidental variation is a force endowed with power and wisdom enough to elevate a squid into a whale, a butterfly into a buffalo, or a monkey into a man.

2. Natural Selection cannot Account for Organs Made or Strengthened in Opposition to the Physical Force of the Animal.

Lamarck's favorite and popular giraffe is a striking illustration of the principle. The neck and tongue were lengthened, on Mr. Darwin's theory, because thereby the longest-necked browsed best, grew heaviest, and so survived. But every pound added to its weight, pressed upon the legs of the young giraffe, yet soft, and pressed them down to the earth. If, then, there had been no superior force at work, the law of gravitation should have shortened the legs as the weight of the body increased. But, on the contrary, we see a regular and studied proportion between the elongated neck and the elongated legs of the giraffe. This must have been produced by a power working in direct antagonism to the physical forces, and so in antagonism to Mr. Darwin's natural selection, which abjures every supernatural force.

3. Natural Selection cannot Produce any but Profitable Variations; but many Variations are actually Injurious to their Owners.

Mr. Darwin repeatedly asserts, and his theory is founded upon the assumption, that only such variations as are profitable to the individual are preserved and accommodated. Whence, then, have the rattles of the rattlesnake been derived? For these, by giving warning to his prey, and driving it away, are a positive injury to him. Of the same nature is the barb on the sting of the honey bee, which, remaining fixed in the wound, causes the

death of the bee after wounding any tough-skinned animal. And the superior sweetness of the better grasses and grains, which makes them the object of selection by grazing animals to the hindrance of their seeding, could never have been produced by natural selection. Here there are large classes of animals and vegetables excommunicated from Darwin's kingdom

4. Variations are not Generally Profitable at First, nor until Complete; and therefore, according to the Theory, could not be Preserved.

Consider, for example, the first formation of limbs. By the hypothesis, the first living creatures had no limbs, neither feet nor fins; and many creatures are still without any. The first beginning of a limb could only have been a little roughening of the skin. Now, how could an infinitesimal roughening of the skin in any way aid such a creature in the struggle of life? But it is only "profitable variations" which are preserved. The first variations towards feet or fins manifestly would not have been profitable, and so could not have been preserved. Then again, the provision for the support of the young of all the mammalia, by sucking the mother's milk, never could have been introduced by small accidental variations. Such would have been utterly useless for the nourishment of the young, which must have perished while the teats and milk glands were growing. This is a fatal objection to the theory, and it is as world-wide and self-evident as any truth can be.

In what way could the transition from water-breathing to air-breathing animals be effected by small accidental variations? Could gills be converted into lungs by any such process? If a fish were cast ashore and half-killed by the drying up of water in its gills, would that be a "profitable variation," likely to be transmitted to its progeny? Yet Mr. Darwin says we all came from aquatic

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