p. 707 | Literary Fops by T. De Witt Talmage

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 25, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 45.

Literary Fops.

By T. De Witt Talmage

OH, it makes me sick to see these literary fops going along with a copy of Darwin under one arm, a case of transfixed grasshoppers and butterflies under the other arm, telling about the "survival of the fittest," and Huxley's protoplasm, and the nebular hypothesis!

The fact is that some naturalists, just as soon as they find out the difference between the feelers of a wasp and the horns of a beetle, begin to patronize the Almighty; while Agassiz, glorious Agassiz, who never made any pretension of being a Christian, puts both his feet on the doctrine of evolution and says: "I see that many of the naturalists of our day are adopting facts which do not bear observation or have not passed under observation." These men warring with each other—Darwin warring against Lamark, Wallace warring against Cope, even Herschel denouncing Ferguson—they do not agree about anything. They do not agree on embryology, do not agree on the gradation of the species.

What do they agree on? Herschel writes a whole chapter on the errors of astronomy. La Place declares that the moon was not put in the right place. He says if it had been put four times farther from the earth than it is now, there would be more harmony in the universe; but Lionville comes up just in time to prove that the moon was put in the right place. How many colors woven into the light? Seven, says Isaac Newton. Three, says David Brewster. How high is the aurora borealis? Two and a half miles, says Lias. How far is the sun from the earth? Seventy-six million miles, says Lacalle. Eighty-two million miles, says Humboldt. Ninety million miles, says Henderson. One hundred and four million miles, says Mayer. Only a little difference of twenty-eight million miles! All split up among themselves, not agreeing on anything.—T. De Witt Talmage.