As a single illustration of the demands which geology makes upon us for time, it is enough to refer to the great gorge of the Colorado.1 "This Cañon is three hundred miles long, and has walls of rock three thousand to six thousand feet high. The walls are sections of nearly horizontal strata, ranging for the principal part of their extent from the granite to the top of the carboniferous, and higher up the stream to the top of the cretaceous; and the whole bears undoubted evidence, according to Newberry, that it was made by running water. The granite has been excavated in some places to a depth of nearly one thousand feet; above this there are two thousand to two thousand five hundred feet of Palaeozoic sandstones, shales, and limestones, one thousand feet of probably subcarboniferous limestone, and one thousand two hundred feet of Carboniferous sandstones and limestones." This enormous gorge must have been principally worn out since the beginning of the Tertiary period, for very little progress could have been made before the elevation of the mountains of that region which bear upon their shoulders the Cretaceous formation. If we suppose the erosion to have proceeded at the rate of one inch a year, it would place the beginning of the Tertiary period more than twenty million years ago. That is, this period would have elapsed since there are known to have existed a number of species of animals (Palaeothere, Lophiodon) closely allied to the horse and the hog (Hieracothere, Chaeropotamus), also those that partook of characteristics between the Pachyderms and the stag among Ruminants (as the Anoplothere and Dichobune). "There were also monkeys, bats, deer, and opossums in England and France, although in the present age there are no opossums out of America, and monkeys are confined to the tropical zones." It is evident that the rate of change required to pass during such a period from the Palaeotherium to the horse and from Chaeropotamus to the hog might be very slow. Reflection on the vastness of these pre-historic ages does much to smooth the way for the acceptance of such a 1 Dana's Manual of Geology (1st ed.), p. 569. The account is not materially different in the 2d edition.

theory as that of Darwin. Time is one factor; change is another. To produce a given result each would vary inversely as the other. As we pass into the period preceding the Tertiary the vistas of time recede in increasing ratio to the beginning of organic existence. During this period positive evidence concerning the plasticity of the existing species diminishes, while there is a corresponding increase of the unknown element of time and physical change. The more cautious scientific men pause before venturing far into the mazes of primordial time.

XX. CONSPECTUS.

Setting out from that period when the Creator first breathed life into one, or, more probably, four or five, distinct forms, Mr. Darwin supposes the development to have been something as follows:

A vast, extremely complicated, and inscrutable environment of physical forces has furnished both material and limits to the development of organic life. The generic thread of life has been continuous from its introduction to the present day. Species in every part of their organism were endowed with an indefinite and imperfectly understood power of variability. Those variations which were best fitted to the changing conditions of their existence have of course survived. The conditions favoring the existence of a divergence from the type may continue so long that new species shall result. The qualities required to give a new variety the advantage in the struggle for life are as varied as the whole range of organic functions, of animal impulse, and of social instinct. "Utility" has as broad a meaning in Darwin's law of natural selection as "desire" has in systems of ethics or political economy. Desire ranges from the brutal instincts of the savage to the loftiest aspiration of the philosopher or the Christian martyr. The conclusions of the science of political economy are as indefinite as its basis of desire is broad. In like manner the superstructure of Darwin's evolutionary hypothesis must be as indeterminate as its base of utility is comprehensive. The preservation of a divergent

variety may depend on its own absolute completeness for the struggle, or on the comparative weakness of its competitors. It may depend on gigantic stature or diminutive littleness, on endurance or alertness, on boldness or timidity, on acuteness or stupidity. The range of social and sexual instinct is also exceedingly wide. We give the logical chain according to Wallace, Organisms tend to a rapid increase, while the total number of individuals is stationary: this induces a struggle for existence, which combined with "heredity and varia tion," results in the "survival of the fittest"; this, combined with "unceasing change of external conditions," secures changes of organic forms, of such degree and permanency that they are called specific; thus Species may originate.

On the supposition of a preponderance of land during an early period in the Southern hemisphere, analogous to that which now exists in the Northern, many of the anomalous facts of the distribution of species, and the retention of old forms of life in the isolated centres of the South, will approach solution.

Through the discovery of connecting links, and fresh investigation of the facts bearing upon the distribution, gradation, and variability of species, much presumptive proof of the evolution of species has accumulated. What was required, and what "natural selection" has to some extent supplied, was not so much additional positive arguments, as the production of a theory which should not in its mode of operation do violence to the facts pointing so strongly in an opposite direction. A secondary cause, known to operate within certain limits, and which may have operated through the whole extent of organic life, and bound all species of an order into a united whole is brought to light. It is endeavored thus to put the advocates of the independent creation of species on the defence, and to throw the burden of proof upon those who deny the organic unity of the animal and vegetable creation. Of the defences put forth for the old-time view of the manner of the production of species we will speak in a succeeding Article.

1 Con. Theory Nat. Selec., p. 302.

ARTICLE V.

A PROFESSORSHIP OF MISSIONARY INSTRUCTION IN OUR THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES.

BY REV. A. P. HAPPER, M.D., D.D., MISSIONARY OF THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS IN CANTON, CHINA, FOR MORE THAN A QUARTER OF A CENTURY.

It is generally admitted that there is no more important duty laid upon the church than that of preaching the gospel in all the world. In order to qualify men for preaching the gospel to people at home it is considered necessary that the preacher should be well educated. As new activity has been manifested in behalf of infidelity and science and philosophy, "falsely so called," special provision has been made for meeting the new phases of error. At first the subject of pastoral theology received but little attention in our Theological Seminaries; but when attention was called to the importance of special training in this part of ministerial duty, arrangements were made in some of our Seminaries that instruction in pastoral theology should engage the special attention of a professor. The young men who enter our Seminaries have had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with the philosophy, science, and literature which are current in western lands, yet with all their opportunities of forming a general knowledge of these things, the theological student is thoroughly instructed in them by professors who have devoted special attention to these studies.

Very different, however, is the case of those who contemplate the service of foreign missionaries. They are called to go forth into lands widely separated from our own. The climate, soil, productions, and industries of those lands are very diverse from those of our own. The people of these lands have systems of philosophy, cosmogony, metaphysics, government, education, and religion the very opposite of

those in our own land, and also different, from all the nations of the West, of ancient and modern times, with which systems the course of study in our colleges gives the students more or less acquaintance. The experience of former missionaries has showed that different methods of labor have been successful in different parts of the mission field, according to the character and circumstances of the people among whom the labor has been performed. This experience has been gained at the expense of much time and labor; and the results of such experience are very difficult to gather up and render useful. But so far as facilities are afforded in our Theological Seminaries to those students. who would wish to acquire the knowledge of the above. designated subjects, which is so important to him in his contemplated work among the heathen, there are simply none. It appears most wonderful and strange that it is so. It will appear almost unaccountable to every one who comes to consider it, that it should be so. This is a probable explanation of the fact: In 1812, when the first American missionaries were sent forth to the heathen in foreign lands, there was, of course, no capability of giving any such instruction. These lands were all unknown. The missionaries went forth to gain that knowledge, by years of patient study and pains-taking inquiry and investigation. The men who went forth in that heroic age of missions were men of such earnest purpose and deep consecration of heart, that by their untiring perseverance they conquered success. Hence it has become a settled and an unhesitating conviction of many minds that what was enough and sufficient for those early missionaries is sufficient and suitable for all their successors. It might as well be said that, because there were many able and successful ministers before the days of Theological Seminaries, therefore Seminaries are unnecessary to train ministers. But as it concerns foreign missionaries, is it a wise economy of time and means to send them abroad to learn those things which they can better learn before they go, -as the knowledge of the religion, the