A Scientific Frog by Dr. E. O. Haven

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 5, 1882

A Scientific Frog.

By Dr. E. O. Haven

A DISCONTENTED and curious frog, seeing a couple of men sitting under the shadow of a tree by the side of a stream of water, and engaged in conversation, hopped up to the bank, and seated himself before them to learn something from their conversation.

One of them was a scientific quack, and was just now warmly advocating "the development hypothesis."

"We know nothing of God," said he; "this stream flows on because water runs down hill; the wind blows because nature makes it blow; the sun shines and the plants grow all as the result of law. Who sees any design in it? A man is a fool to believe what he cannot see. What are we men? Only higher developments of some lower animals, such as fishes and frogs!"

And then the men departed. Thenceforth the frog was a philosopher. He held up his head with pride, and endeavored to hop only on his hind legs. He was not particularly proud of his ancestry, but entertained great expectations of his numerous family of pollywogs.

One of them at least he hoped would develop into a little man.

After this he determined to travel and enrich his mind by observation. The first place he visited was a saw-mill, of which he had often heard his father speak. He seated himself upon a log with his back toward a large revolving saw, and began to soliloquize.

"Now, the saw-mill," said he, "my father told me, was designed by a higher power for the purpose of making boards. Nonsense! There is no such thing as design. The mill made itself. It was developed by nature and law. How foolish to believe in what you cannot see!"

In the meantime the miller let on the water, and the log began to glide smoothly and the saw to revolve; and while the frog was absorbed in meditation the saw reached him, and, presto! he was cut asunder, and that was the end of his travels and philosophy.

MORAL: It is not well for frogs or men to know too much, for excess of knowledge and stupidity are sometimes the same thing.—Dr. E. O. Haven.