EVOLUTION.

Evening Star, Issue 4185, 26 July 1876, Page 4

EVOLUTION.

To the Editor. "Sir, —It does not seem to me in the least et-ange that an advanced thinker like Mr Fitohett should come in for his share of abuse for having the boldness to speak the aentiments of his mind. 'The " Anti-Evolu-tionist " in your issue of the. 22nd cannot see it clear that the Book of Genesis was written in a manner; as it Jwere, for little children, but it is a well-known fact that the Jews were only serfs, and the little knowledge that was then, was-ocly amongst the few, and it was the priests in general that had the knowledge, and they took good care to keep it so as to luxuriate on the credulily of the people. Up till about the fifteenth century few could read but the priests, and even some of them could not write so they might interpolate and do what they liked with very few to stop them. But the art of printing came sb suddenly upon them that they bad no time to alter the absurdities' that they put in the Bible, so thus we have, it in its crude state. The "Anti-Evolutionist" blames Mr Fitchett for his assumption, and says it is wholly unwarrantable ; but might not we say the same of his assumption, when he calls the Bible God's eternal and uuohangeable word? If he only knew it, that unchangeable word, as he cal's it, is as. changeable as the phases of Evolution itself, and we need not go far to prove the fact. The Word of God, as he calls it, says in the third chapter of Malachi, sixth verse, " For I am the Lord, I change not;' and the first chapter of James, seventeenth verse, says, " There is no variableness, neither shadow oE turning in Him ; God is not man that He should lie, neither the son of man that He should ropent." Yet, .we find in the seventh chapter of Genesis, seventh verse, not long after He had created things, repenting of having made them; "And the Lord repented that he set up Saul to be king; first San-n el, fifteenth chapter, eleventh verse, " And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart; and the Lord repented of the evil which He had thought to do, and to His people ;" Exodus, thirtysecond chapter, fourteenth verse, '' And the Lord smelled a sweet savor ; and the Lord eaid in His heart I will not again curse the ' ground any more for man's sake." And we also find Him weary with repenting. If we yrere to pay attention to that unchangeable word as he calls it, we would find God or His word as changeable as any man of the present day, and even subject to the laws of Evolution itself, for what is the repenting of doing evil but the evolving of the better principle of doing good. Although I never jead much on the subject of Evolution, still I cannot shut my eyes to the fact. I can see it" in a great deal of animated nature, I have seen it in the frog; you first see it when it comes to life witn a head and a'tail, then it. takes on two feet, then other two again, and loses its tail. In this first condition it was not amphibious, and where they are generally reared, is liable to become dry, and I think they better their position by becoming amphibious. I can see it in the guild, and I can see it in myself and man* kind in general, since the-earliest ages hare been continually bettering their position by their ingenuity and labor, and what >lo you Call that but Evolution. The man that would condemn Evolution in this age, I would net aay he was. mad, but I should say he had lost his mental eye-sight.— I am, &0., One in Favor of Evolvtion.