I am now
prepared to candidly confess that I do not believe any man can keep a
good heart without the fear of God. Such is my observation and
experience."

THE LATEST EVOLUTIONARY CONFLICT.

THEY FIRST WISH IT TO BE SO, THEN SOON, WITHOUT PROOF, THEY ASSERT THAT
IT IS SO!

(_From the Cincinnati Gazette, of June 26, 1880._)

"Prof. Huxley is assured that the doctrine of evolution, so far as the
animal world is concerned, is no longer a speculation, but a statement
of historical fact, taking its place along side of those accepted truths
which must be taken into account by philosophers of all schools."

This statement was the summing up of an address delivered at the Royal
Institution on the 19th of March. The address was specifically an
account of "The Coming of Age of the Origin of Species"--it being nearly
twenty-one years since Darwin's work bearing that name was first
published.

The lecturer glanced at the general replacement of the catastrophic
theory of geology by the uniformitarian hypothesis, claimed that many of
the most important breaks in the line of the descent of plants and
animals had been filled, noticed the great advance made in the science
of embryology, and held that the amount of our knowledge respecting the
mammalia of the Tertiary epoch had increased fifty-fold since Darwin's
work appeared, and in some directions even approaches completeness. The
lecture closed with these words: "Thus when, on the first of October
next, 'The Origin of Species' comes of age, the promise of its youth
will be amply fulfilled and we shall be prepared to congratulate the
venerated author of the book, not only that the greatness of his
achievement and its enduring influence upon the progress of knowledge
have won him a place beside Harvey, but, still more, that, like Harvey,
he has lived long enough to outlast detraction and opposition, and to
see the stone that the builders rejected become the head-stone of the
corner."

This is plain and emphatic speaking, but it has not been suffered to
pass unchallenged.

Dr. Charles Elam, a writer who has already more than once measured
swords with the school of naturalists of which Professor Huxley is a
foremost champion, has been moved to respond to this latest utterance.
He has contributed to the _Contemporary Review_ a paper entitled "The
Gospel of Evolution," which, whatever may be its conclusiveness, is one
of the sharpest attacks recently sustained by the oppo