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THE OLD RIDDLE AND THE NEWEST ANSWER
The Lord St. Alban would say to some philosophers--"Gentlemen,
nature is a labyrinth, in which the very haste you move with, will
make you lose your way."
BACON, _Apophthegms_.
THE OLD RIDDLE
AND THE NEWEST
ANSWER
BY
JOHN GERARD, S.J., F.L.S.
_FOURTH EDITION_
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON,
NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
1907
ROEHAMPTON:
PRINTED BY JOHN GRIFFIN.
PREFACE
The enemies of Science are not the philistines alone--if any still
remain--who would muzzle or stifle her. More numerous and dangerous are
those--professedly of her own household--who ascribe to her pretensions
of which she herself knows nothing, and strive to make her responsible
for a philosophy entirely beyond her scope. With this object efforts are
assiduously made to popularize the idea that nothing in heaven or earth
is beyond her ken, and that she has rendered all such beliefs impossible
as alone can satisfy the deeper cravings of humanity. At the same time
the very brilliance of her achievements is apt to dazzle our eyes,
blinding them to the extremely narrow limits of the field in which she
can operate, and making us rush to the conclusion that she has solved
the riddle which from the beginning of time Nature has offered to every
thinking mind,--or at least that what her search-light cannot illumine
must for ever remain unknowable.
How far such assumptions are rational, it is the object of the present
enquiry to examine by means of the evidence furnished by Science herself
in her own regard.
I have to thank Mr. W. E. Darwin for permission to use the illustration
of feathers of the Argus Pheasant from his illustrious father's _Descent
of Man_, and for the loan of blocks for the purpose. Through the
courtesy of Messrs. Macmillan I am allowed to copy a portion of the
plate in the late Professor Huxley's _Lectures on Evolution_,
illustrating his pedigree of the Horse. If I forbear to mention others
who have kindly supplied me with information, it is only lest it might
be supposed that they are anywise responsible for the use I have made of
it. The design on the cover of the present volume I owe to my friend Mr.
Paul Woodroffe.
J. G.
_March_ 10, 1904.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
In this edition, which has been thoroughly revised throughout, a few
corrections have had to be made, especially in the Index, and in one or
two instances alterations or additions have appeared advisable for the
sake of clearness or accuracy of expression. Nothing has, however, as
yet been brought to the author's notice which affects any substantial
point in what he has written.
_July_ 28, 1904.
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
This edition has again been thoroughly revised, and some new matter
appended which bears on various points raised in the original volume,
especially the establishment of the important group of the
_Cycado-filices_, as affecting the succession of plant life on the
earth, and recent evidence concerning the pedigree of the horse.
_December_ 21, 1906.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGES
TO BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING
Certainty that there was a Beginning of the World--What
was there before?--The Great Problem, to be
answered by Reason and Science 1-3