STORY OF THE EARTH.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1813, 12 April 1888, Page 2

STORY OF THE EARTH.

(By A. Ireland.)

Part 111. LIFB UPON THE KAIITH-ITS DAWN AND HISTOhY. {Continued from cur last.) Evolati mista deny that great s'zi is a sign ot high development, but our experience now of the larger animala is aa a rale that they are more Intelligent than the email ones. The elephant is the largeat and at the same time the moat intelligent of all the animals under man. A'Ugat res are the largest reptiles now, and they are as intelligent and canning as any. The condor is one of the largest birds and is as intelligent ac any. The earth has always had Its organic life m accord with its preparedness to support life. The first organisms appear as far aa we know daring the Lanrentian period, m the shape of lowly and primitive creatures Had man appeared dnrtag this period of the world'a history he could not have lived, nor oould any of the higher animals. The world then was only prepared to support the most primitive creatures. Each olaes of animals appears at the proper time | and In a progteßßive order. Considerable portions of the eartb'B surface are com--1 pcmed of the remains of onca living ' animals. The chalk olifia of Dover aro ' r composed of nothing else. The liraeetone formations of every land consist of nothing else. Evolutionists make muoh out of embryology, but as a review of this feature would require a separate ohapter we will not consider it fully at this time, Oue remarkable difference between some of the fiah of the early ages, and those of later date h that the first mentioned had their hard parts or skeleton on the outf eide, while the latter have the hard parts inside and the soft part outside; They t had a coat of mall consisting of hard i bony plates ooverlng all the soft parts of ') their bodies. . 'I he earliest fishes that had ? their soft parts outside had their hard ') parts or skeleton of cartilage instead of B bone. Types of these remain to thia day, 5 euoh as sharks, elephant-fish, etc. f Although the shark is one of the earliest • types yet it is one of the highest In 1 organisation, a fact which certainly 8 tells against the development theory. '• If it oould ba Bhown that at the firat appearance of each of the divisions of the animal kiugdom they were invariably c of low organisation, and had hardly aDy line of demarcation separating them from 6 the former divUion ; if that were bo, then I Darwin and his followers would have aome■r thing substantial to stand upon, instead of d mere conjecture and imagination. Among 0 the first fish, were someaa highly developed IC aa any now existing ; among the lirat > reptiles the same, and so with mam* 0 mals. The first human remains oould d never be mistaken for other than human > and can easily be duplicated with identical c counterparts of the present age. Evolu- <* tionlpts have formed their conclusions "■ from Inauffiolent evidence. Because the c order of creaMon started with the lowest II and ended with the highest organisation, - they take it aa positive evidence that they I" evolved one from the other by a natural 'I prnceas. The fact that they have all been oreated ou the aamo general plan of con— r ntrnction, they regard bb evidence of the • merging of one speoiea Into another. " Because the embryo does not instantly ded velope after conception, into ejaot and ■• fully organised counterparts of the original b but by a alow prooeea grows from an D apparently homogeneous fluid into the 0 perfeot animal by alow stages, perfecting Q as it glows, they instantly conclude that '• it h but evidence that the animal has '1 developed In its history through all thesj ~ stages ; that its embryonic growth In but the reflex of the development of the c animal during Its history as an organism. ' It la a hasty conclusion to gome to without 6 more definite evidence m sapport of it. > 8 Muoh is made out of the tail of man during D his unbryonlo state, also of the gills he is tt said to have during the early Btages. '• As a matter of fact both e^lefc more m '• Imagination than m roality. ThegDlaare • only folds of looae flash m the neck ■" of the embryo, and are cot properly gills at all. Fish uniformly have their gills at the side of their nooks, whereas 6 theße so-called human gllle are iv tho throat. The head being abruptly bent n down upon the cheßt, this bend causes 7 five or Btx wrinkles of the muaoloa of the nock. These wrinkles aa the curvature of the neck straightens, are gradually 6 absorbed into adj icent parts. As regards 0 the human tail ; it has aa little foundation » iv faot us the gill archoa have. In the • growth of the embryo, the Bpinal column • grown tuoro quickly m the early stages r than the other parts. This tail la only a the extension of tho spinal ooluinn below a the framework oJ the hips, and from the 1 faot of Its more rapid growth it appears - more elongated than m tho more mature child, Daring later Btages of growth the 3 fhahy portions of the trunk grow moro t rapidly and cover up tho column and os f coccygis, when evolutionists think it has 3 become aborted, but as a matter of fact ? iiißtead of being aborted it still continues ' to grotv even to the mature individual. 3 During no period of hia existeqoo, will a i single vertebra m thia es coccygis dia- » aj pear, The flrat appearance of life '• upon the oarth was m the ooa, and m its f moot piimitivo or simple forma, and mu3t have ra.inlted from at not of creation on tho part of tho Creator. Thuy were la- ~ v©: tebrato animal?. The next appearanoo ) of a higher order of animals was tho I lowest of the vertebrate auimals, viz. fiah, ' and they rauat havo been a Bopar»te aud > dietlnct creation. Then, following m the* - order named, distinct und separate, wore > the reptiles, birds, mammals and man, ■ each appearing aa a new oroatlon and not > an insensible merging of the one into the ' other. There is no doubt that there waß 1 variation umong eaoh of these divisions 1 produoiag different varieties. Aa oil raoea of man oould have come from one man, all the different races vary, ing from the original type by the effeot of varying circumstances, there can be little doubt, that the different varieties of different speolcs were produced m the Bamo way vis., the result of being subjected to altered oiroumstanoos, either of ollraato, food, looality, or some other cause, Nature producing BOrne change m the anioiali more m harmony with their altorod position. All evidence, all experience, goes to Bhew that Nature will not tolerate any such change as tho merging of fiah into reptiloe, birds Into raaoiraulß, or any of the lower aoinaala into man, through the operation of nonie cuuso not kuown, but-, Imputed by Darwin and hla following to n law of " the sutvlval of tho fittest." There ia muoh evidence against this idea, but apace will not permit entering into it at present. There are unny portions of the animal kingdom' thai, have died out, but not from starvation, not from any pressure upou the moans of subsistence, not beo*uae of the competition of other aptoi6B (;r varieties. 1 Tha m'oa »oV instance — what was there m the struggle fur exlateno" which caaaed its death ; was there a survival of a more firted animal In Its atead ? Any of tho lawa of evoiutionlata are quite powerloßa to give any explanation of its death, or of tho death of moat of the uxUnov ituimala 5