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Show ''Man Geologically Considered." Editors Herald: A popular lecturer is expected, as of course, to make of his topic a hobby; confine himself to it, magnify it, and give his hearers a distinct, il not an overpowering impression. To one at least who heard the lecture last evening on "Man Geologically Considered," the impression waa unpleasantly un-pleasantly faint at bent. Aa treated, the theme waa a hackneyed tale, without a gleam of enthusiastic eloquence, elo-quence, or a line of really strong logic. Science, as diitingutshed from socialism, social-ism, is supposed to be logically conclusive. con-clusive. But look at the inductions which the lecturer made use of one draws from deficient language; another an-other from the fact of incest prevail-itig prevail-itig in savaga life, and auother consisting con-sisting iti alone relics, these three being termed " tiomi -geological " proofs of the pre-hietoric existence of the races ot men. Was Egypt prehistoric pre-historic when the Ptolemis lived and lived ineestuoualy ? Or, ww Judea proved to be ot undenued antiquity an-tiquity when Hrod lived and prac- . tieed inceat T Are not our own civil courts proof that the crime is as much 1 a markofcontomporaneoua humanity , u of ancient ? A speoialist should have done better tbaa thia to carry an intelligent audience with him. Stone relics, anew heads and hammers, ham-mers, and so on, thrown over large and marked areas ef the older states, were in familiar uae by our American Indiana when sup- i planted by the whites three hundred years ago, and are in use still by savages who war without firearms. Ie this worth a grand flourish of the recently coined word "pre-bistericr" A river deepens its channel at an assumed rate and from tbe debris found at its greatest height we are to conclude scientifically that pre-his-toric man fished a living with bis hands out ot that river a hundred ihouaand years ago. An accretion of stalagmite in a cave ia assumed to have thickennd at a given rate, till it got to be as thick as a leaf; and this is the scientific clue to an explanation of the jumbled contents ef that single cave, giving lucid and completely satisfactory preof that "man" was the consort and boon companion el brutes prehis torically. This is the basis of the new geological chronology, the grand topis of the lecturer's tslicita-tion tslicita-tion Of himself and his ever intelligent intelli-gent and very patient audience last night. Is not that stalagmite leaf "a little too tbinf" Mav 5. A Learner. |