The Old Riddle and the Newest Answer. By John Gerard,
S.J. (Longman and Co. 5s. net.)—This book exhibits the qualities which one may expect in any production of its author. It is acute, powerfully reasoned, and characterised by a uniform courtesy and moderation of tone. Controversies so conducted cannot fail to profit. Briefly described, it is an argument against evolution. It would not be possible in the short notice that we can give of the book to make any detailed examination. It strikes us that not quite enough attention is paid to the existence of apparently useless organs in the frames of animals. There is no argument of the evolutionists which so appeals to the average thinker. And then we should like to have some constructive teaching about Creation. The popular orthodox view, obviously inferred from the Mosaic cosmogony, is that man and the other animals were created " as they stand," so to speak. Nothing differing from this would satisfy the traditional theological opinion. Evolution may have to go; but prehistoric man and the whole mass of palaeonto- logical fact have to be reconciled with Genesis i.
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