, and is more consistent
with reason than that of those who accept with faith the book of
Genesis. The evolution theory is, in the words of Mr. Savage, "that the
whole universe, suns, planets, moons, our earth, and every form of life
upon it, vegetable and animal, up to man, together with all our
civilization, has developed from a primitive fire-mist or nebula that
once filled all the space now occupied by the worlds; and that this
development has been according to laws and methods and forces still
active and working about us to-day." But if it be granted, or even
proved, that this is true, we cannot see how it satisfies the reason
when we come to the question of creation and a creator. For what a
stupendous, unutterably stupendous, and almost inconceivable thing was
that fire-mist that filled all space and had in it not only the germs
and possibilities of suns and moons and planets and our earth, but of
man and _all his civilization_; and those laws and methods and forces
according to which the universe and man and his civilization have been
evolved from a fire-mist--what inconceivable things they are! Now who
made the fire-mist and the law of evolution? We cannot see that reason
is satisfied by the substitution of a fire-mist and a law of evolution
for the will of a creator and a specific creation of the suns and stars
and planets, including the earth, and man, and his possibilities of
civilization. The thing is as broad one way as it is long the other. As
far as the fact of creation goes, in either case the belief must be a
matter of faith, not of reason. With regard to the anthropomorphism of
the Hebrew story, that is shared, and must be shared, by all
religions--that is, all religious which rest upon the notion of a
personal God. The limitations of man's nature, the limitations of
language, make anthropomorphic metaphor necessary when a man speaks of a
god. Even the evolutionists cannot get rid of the necessity of faith.

* * * * *

--Dr. Richardson's papers published in "Nature," and designed to prove
the advantage, and in fact the real necessity of experimenting on
animals in order to be ready to save human life, contain many
interesting facts and deserve to be widely read in view of the current
discussion as to the propriety of permitting the practice of
vivisection. The following case affords conclusive proof of the learned
and humane physiologist's argument. He says: "Dr. Weir M