Evolution and natural theology / by W.F. Kirby.

  • Kirby, W. F. (William Forsell), 1844-1912.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Evolution and natural theology / by W.F. Kirby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    extent of the stellar universe was disclosed; then came Geology, with its disclosures of the vast age of the earth, and, later, of the compara- tively great antiquity of the human race ; then Chemistry, with its revelations of the common structure of the organic and inorganic world; and finally Biology, demonstrating the common origin of all life. The physical science of the ancient world never appears to have become the familiar heritage of the multitude, and what their wise men knew of the real system of the Universe, was lost or misapprehended after the decay of the ancient civilisations. Many of our sciences, too, appear to be exclusively of modern growth. A few generations back, and the wisest man did not even dream of facts now known to the humblest school-child : what then could the community have known or guessed of the nature of the Universe ? No wonder that with the Ancients, and even more durincf the Middle Ages, the earth was either the Universe, or at least the centre and object of all things. It was supposed to be a flat plain, varying in size in different systems; but in all cases distant countries were regarded as unearthly regions, abounding with fabulous creatures ot