< Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu
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THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION.

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our brief terrestrial experience, can demonstrate, there lies on every side a region with regard to which Science can only suggest questions. As Goethe so profoundly says: "Willst du ins Unendliche streiten, Geh' nur im Endlichen nach alien Seiten."[1]

It is of surpassing interest that the particular generalization which has been extended into a universal formula of evolution should have been the generalization of the development of an ovum. In enlarging the sphere of life in such wise as to make the whole universe seem actuated by a single principle of life, we are introduced to regions of sublime speculation. The doctrine of evolution, which affects our thought about all things, brings before us with vividness the conception of an ever-present God not an absentee God who once manufactured a cosmic machine capable of running itself except for a little jog or poke here and there in the shape of a special providence. The doctrine of evolution destroys the conception of the world as a machine. It makes God our constant refuge and support, and Nature his true revelation; and when all its religious implications shall have been set forth, it will be seen to be the most potent ally that Christianity has ever had in elevating mankind.

Mr. G. L. Gomme makes a distinction between the anthropological and the literary schools of folk-lorists. The work of the former has only just begun; the latter has been at work for a long time, although the results it has obtained do not seem to be advancing beyond the dictum that what is recorded chronologically earlier must be the parent of that which is recorded later, the second being the central point of importance, not the thing recorded. The results of the anthropological school show great and continuing advance. From analysis of folk tales it becomes clear that in the majority of stories the central part of the plot is some savage or rudely barbarous idea or custom. By analyzing custom and belief, and tracing out their geographical distribution in each country, much would be gained toward placing folk lore as one of the factors for elucidating the prehistoric life of man. As examples of such analysis, baptism beliefs, witchcraft customs, the burning of the clavie, and some sacrificial rites in Devonshire, were given in the author's paper, and the evidence was pointed out which suggests that they contain some unpublished details of the practices of the stone age. Further, Mr. Gomme urged the importance of studying folk lore by exact methods. According to Mr. W. T. Thiselton Dyer, of Kew Gardens, Alpine plants are the reverse of hardy. He believes that they are for the most part intolerant of very low temperature, and are certainly extremely impatient of humidity during the comparatively long period when they are not in active growth. For these reasons the collections at Kew are wintered under glass. These peculiarities are accounted for by the fact that in nature, except for a short time, Alpine plants are covered with snow, which keeps them dry and protects them from a very low temperature.
  1. ↑ ["If thou wouldst press into the infinite, go but to all parts of the finite."]
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