Show GRAVE ERRORS IV IN A LEARNED THE tendency of modern thoas thought ht Is la in the direction of skepticism many adepts dep ts I 1 in scientific research and experiment peri pe i ment appear to devote the energies of their minds to the production or support of theories abich wt ich will ex plain the causes of things without reference to a divine personality person evolution which is 1 not a ocie science but only a philosophy largely based on conjecture attempts to trace the origin ot of all things to self existent animate matter from which has sprung without exterior aid all the forms and features of vegetable animal and human life with all the exhibitions of intellectual and spiritual power which grace the soul and shine in the eyes of tile the believer as evidences and manifestations of deity accidental generation natural selection the transmutation of species differentiation tae survival of the fittest and other alleged spontaneous unplanned undirected causes and agencies aae taking the place in latter day ethics of an almighty omniscient and designing creator from spiritual intellectual and physical man back to the ape then to the quadruped thence to the reptile the fish the mollusc and down to a piece of slime floating in a stagnant pond so called science traces the source of the crowning 1 work and masterpiece of nature att the image and offspring of god As the politicians posing as statesmen have ruled god out of human government govern men so the philosophers figuring as scientists nave have banished god from the physical and intellectual universe to tae latter day saint or mormon this is ignorance norance is and fatuity instead of knowledge and wisdom to acknowledge tile the band of god in all things is oae of the fundamental requirements of ilia bis religion anything enat leads in the direction of modern skepticism agnosticism or atheism is to be discouraged by those who consider faith in god the very mainspring of proper human action A watchful care should be exercised over all departments of learning so eo that the youth youthful lul mind may not be tinctured ared with the increasing heresy and that not only such teachings as boldly enunciate the nonexistence non existence of a personal deity but those that are calculated to insinuate the non necessity ot a supreme creator and governor may be suppressed or refuted it is on tais account that we offer some remarks in relation to a lecture ree recently antly delivered in this city a synopsis of which has appeared in the public prints we do so with some reluctance lest we should be misunderstood au intending something personal when we only design to defend principle at tile the summer bummer institute in which school teachers nave have assembled for a most worthy object and which has been attended with many excellent results some remarks were made by a very estimable gentleman anu learned preceptor which as reported are in yur our opinion liable to mislead and we Lher eiore express our dissent from some ideas therein advanced it is possible that tile the report does the aptaker injustice but as it was furnished by authorized persons and has been gevea to the public we take it as it appears in print As the report in the threald was fuller than what appeared in the NEWS we copy from the former in order not to do any injustice us lice to the lecturer life which term I 1 shall use here as identical with mind or soul or spirit is exhibited in its simplest form in a little lump or daub or unorganized matter called protoplasm this protoplasm when isolated or existing independent of or unassociated with organized matter has been given the name amoeba it is simply a homogenous get iotis mass of slime without organs and without tile the least trace of organization and still it lives and moves and eus and grows glows and feels and all this without mouth or stomach or mu muscles beles or nerves it seems to be nothing more than a fluxing flexing piece of jelly but in ilg it simple as it may seem to be has been solved some of the great problems of life and mind this substance abounds as slime in every stagnant pool and ia found in large quantities in the blood ol of every animal under the name ot of plasma j now enow if this bit of animated matter should be touched by any foreign sub stance it will shrink from and perhaps move away from the encroaching body besides using its contractile power in fleeing it will exercise it in its search for food ravin having come in contact with some substance proper to maintain its body it will so shape itself as to envelop the substance thus improvising a temporary stomach Having dissolved and absorbed all the soluble parts ol of tais luis foreign dead matter and converted it into its own owa substance it will again change ita form or unroll and thus expel the indigestible and useless fragments in these exhibitions of the animal we have shown in a primitive way all the essential properties of life and mind that is intelligence or knowing emotional cr feeling and volition or willing so we find the three essential qualities of the mind manifested in this bit of unorganized protoplasm this is where ift all animal organization originates it proves that life is the cause of organization and not organization the cause of life protoplasm at al first is one homogeneous oua mass but finally there makes its appearance pe arance a liitle spot from which will be thrown out a sort of blister forming a cell and its nucleus there ther will spring up in this cell a circulation constantly moving to and from the nucleus in the same way other cells may be formed or one cell may divide into several A new nucleus may spring up in the old cell which will die these processes go on until many cells are formed these there cells arrange themselves in a certain way to per orm certain purposes all ali animal life cow commences in this unorganized protoplasm cells are formed and multiplied muFtI multiplied plied by differentiation they arrange themselves in certain cauda orders arming ing DOM bone 1 muscle and all other tissues of the body the senses tile the most important im octant I 1 organs of the body have been ormed fumed in way and through the senses the mind holds communion with tile the outer world although it may not have been intended by the lecturer it appears to us that the three preceding paragraphs point directly in the line of the modern evolution heresy in its extremes form if unorganized matter contains within itself all the essential qualities of mind and power to improvise cells which reproduce themselves and arrange thym themselves selves in such a manner that all ail animal life is thus formed and the human organism and the intellectual powers of man have evolved from this self moving self adapting unorganized matter what need is there for any ant organizing power outside of it ic and is not a foundation thus built for a god less creed to stand upon we think the grand mistake of the theory lies at its beginning how hok can anat be unorganized matter without the least trace of organization which lives jives and moves and eats and grows and feels what is organized matter Is it not that which nas an arrangement of parts andis and is animate organic matter is defined in chemistry as that which is produced by life mi ini contradistinction to inorganic matter which Is said to be not produced b by life that is unorganized iced matter steeles chemistry dictionary support these definitions dennit ions to organize in this sense is to arrange aud and endow wita the capacity lor for tue lae functions of life coleridge asks I 1 what is organization but the connect tion ot of parts in and lor for a who leso that each part pare is at once end and means now apply that to the lecturers bit of slime blime with all the essential qualities of mind and is not this organized matter if so it had an organizer gau ga nizer izer and that is the vital point ia in llie hie whole argument but the lecturer lectar rr will perhaps claici that it is matter in the sense that it does not contain organs but that which can contract and seize food extract nutriment expel the reluse and grow on what it appropriates powers which he gives to this dils unorganized animal Is ia and exercises the functions of an organ it is not only but organized ses matter a living moving feeling lite says beckard Be Bc clard la is organization in action tile the amosia as the lecturer besig nat s these theay unorganized animas ani mais actually have organs of a very low type they have a single gingle or double nucleus and a temporary cavit cavity yand and sometimes also a contractile vesicle vehicle they are something more than simple protoplasm there is an order still abill lower than the amoeba namely the and easa they are one aste step in advance of simple protoplasm buu Buti even protoplasm which ne lie has bag confounded or which the report confounds with amoeba organized creatures in ia every sense ot of ane term leim pos possesses possesse s animate powers ana alid is not unorganized it is organic matter protoplasm is defined in marchalls marshalls Mar physiology p 67 as the soft granular substance so universal in bolh the animal and vegetable kingdoms and the earliest recognizable form of organic matter 11 As the lecturer shows it has contractile force marshall says p 13 contractility is that property properly by which a living tissue is capable of shrinking in certain directions so as to undergo a spontaneous change of form it is distinguished from aiom mere elasticity by the fact face that it is a property ot of living tissue only the eminent dr stirling in his refu refa aaion of Hux leys protoplasmic sophisms sophi sms remarks maiks re one step farther and we see not only that protoplasm has like water a chemical and physical structure but that unlike water it has also an all organized sed or or gaail str structure 11 again he be says water like us its constituent elements has only chemical and physical qualities qualified like weal them it is stid inorganic but not so in protoplasm I 1 where together with retention iou of tile the chemical and physical likeness there is the a ad d dilion ot of the unlikeness of life of organization and of ideas As regards protoplasm p 41 42 thus taus protoplasm is not anor unorganized matter neither can it be and nave have the properties the lecturer claims for it we contend that protoplasm is organized matter because it is an arrangement ran gement of granules animated with life and if endowed dowed rn as lae lecturer claim mind it has a still stronger claim to be called organized matter for mind is only enly manifested through organisms the protoplasm needed a creator or organizer and when it is represented as unorganized the claim is set up by implication that animate matter with all the e qualities of mind soul goal or spirit exists without an organizer infidelity could claim no more the idea is incorrect too that all animal organization originates from tois tais one substance this bit of slime floating in a pool protoplasm is various in form and essential qualities although to the superficial observer it is always the same professor stricker whose genius is acknowledged even by huxley says protoplasm varies almost infinitely in consistence in shape in structure and in function critiques alq an addresses p 39 according to dr ing there is nerve protoplasm brain protoplasm bone protoplasm muscle protoplasm and protoplasm ol of all the other tissues no one of which but produces its own kind and is I Chan changeable gable with the rest As ase re gards protoplasm p 30 0 Is not this then organized matter eack dif ferat variety a living organism that produces only boly its own klad according to tile the law of tile the creator recorded in the book of Ge genesia nesib if it be claimed by the lecturer that as he has stated protoplasm is a homogeneous mass and therefore unorganized 11 while we should not admit hit his conclusion even it 11 ids his premise were correct we will cite against the latter no less an authority than tyndall Ty noall who perhaps has gone nearly as far as any one in swallowing loing the evolution theory relays he says when the contents ot ofa a cell are described as perfectly homogeneous gene ous as absolutely because the microscope fails to distinguish any structure tuen I 1 think the microscope begins to play a mischievous part pare A little consideration will make it plain to all of you that the microscope can have no voice in the jeal question 0 of germ structure fragments of science P 1 55 having taken for the basis of his argument sr ament the error of unorganized maiter matter containing all the essential mind the lecturer on 10 to lo elaborate further errors in the way of self producing aud and self arranging cells ce I 1 Is in a certain way w av to perform certain purposes by differentia to arrange themselves in certain orders forming bone muscle mascle and all the other tissues of the body 91 A floating bit of slime is afflicted with a blister which it throws out forming a cell and huc nucleus teus the idea of a creator organizer designer is here discarded it Is the unorganized jelly that evolves the cell the cell that produces other cells these cells that arrange themselves in various forms by simple differentiation and from bliem spring all the important organs of the body and the wonderful mani we have no hesitation in saying that this is all mere assertion not borne out by the investigations of science and contrary to the teachings of both ancient and modern revelation reve lauon A cell was never produced so far as eap exp eapen eri ence goes except from another cell if ane cell theory be correct which is not settled in science it i t is utterly impossible for unorganized matter or even protoplasm w without 1 phout a cell to pro duce a cell of itself the lecturers theory involves the absurdity of spontaneous generation which science repudiates tes and which is only advocated by a few speculating theorists marshall says p whatever variety the reproductive process of animals may present the primitive cell whether it be a fertilized fertilised ovum an unfertilized boum a or the commence meat ol 01 a bud is in all known cases a part or product of a preexisting pre existing parent no satisfactory proof has ass yet been adduced of the spontaneous origin of such a cell hence the doctrine of spontaneous generation collapses 1 from rom failure of proof again he says p 94 2 4 the cypoth esies of the free formation lor matlon of cells isas regards tissue life the analogue of spontaneous generation as regards animals themselves and further they tile the cells may appear tto to be evolved in some way from aggregations gregat ions of protoplasm but sti still 11 it us lis submitted always under the in flaonce fla ence ox oi preformed pre pie formed nuclei or nucleoli cle oli ll 11 we could offer further quotations ions and iad arguments on this point but we think it unnecessary we pass now to tile the concluding sentence in the report of the lecture and bring this article to a close the senses are there called organs thesis this is a misnomer the org organs ansof of sense are not reuses any more than wheels are motions this error is repeated in the report of another part of the lecture if we wish perfect sensations the reuses must be perfect organs I 1 I 1 the lecturers meaning may be all I 1 right ight but his language is misleading and in treating scientific subjects terms are very important impo nant particularly is this so 80 when young people who expect to be or are public teachers sit as the pupils tile eye is not seeing the ear is not hearing the thing that moves is not moti motion the organs of sensation and sensation it seit are widely different the organs are material materi althe the senses immaterial the former are substances the latter not and if a public preceptor can err in so small and evident a |