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Life: Its True Genesis by R. W. Wright

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i"?Life: Its True Genesis

By R. W. Wright




[Masoretic Hebrew.]--xOe squaredxx(C)OeOe1/2x" x-Oe.x"Oe deg.xcxx"Oe3/4x'Oexoe xcOe.xoeOe3/4x"OexOeOe'x"Oexcxf.--

IYa1/2-- I"a1/2 IfIEuroa1/2 cubedII1/4I+- I+-a1/2I"I?a?| a1/4I1/2 I+-a1/2I"a?. II+-I"a1/2 deg. I cubeda1/2 cubedI1/2I?I, a1/4IEuroa1/2 I"a?I, I cubeda?I,. [Septuagint.]

"Whose general principle of life, each in itself after its own kind, is
upon the earth." [Correct Translation.]

Second Edition

1884



RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
TO
ARTHUR E. HOTCHKISS, ESQ.
OF CHESHIRE, CONN.




Contents.



Prefatory

Chapter I. Introductory.
Chapter II. Life--Its True Genesis.
Chapter III. Alternations of Forest Growths.
Chapter IV. The Distribution and Vitality of Seeds.
Chapter V. Plant Migration and Interglacial Periods.
Chapter VI. Distribution and Permanence of Species.
Chapter VII. What Is Life? Its Various Theories.
Chapter VIII. Materialistic Theories of Life Refuted.
Chapter IX. Force-Correlation, Differentiation and Other Life Theories.
Chapter X. Darwinism Considered from a Vitalistic Stand-point.




Preface to Second Edition.



Here is the law of life, as laid down by the eagle-eyed prophet Isaiah, in
that remarkable chapter commencing, "Ho, every one that
thirsteth"--whether it be after knowledge, or any other earthly or
spiritual good--come unto me and I will give you that which you seek. This
is the spirit of the text, and these are the words at the commencement of
the tenth verse:

"As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not
thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it (_the earth_) bring forth
and bud (_not first bud, bear seed, and then bring forth_), that it (_the
earth_) may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater (_man being the
only sower of seed and eater of bread_): so shall my Word be (_the Word of
Life_) that goeth forth out of my mouth (_the mouth of the Lord_); it
shall not return unto me void (_i.e., lifeless_), but it shall accomplish
that which I (_the Lord Jehovah_) please, and it (_the living Word_) shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."

This formula of life is as true now as it was over two thousand six
hundred years ago, when it was penned by the divinely inspired prophet,
and it is as true now as it was then, that "Instead of the thorn shall
come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle
tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that
shall not be cut off." That is, as the rains descend and the floods come
and change the face of the earth, a law, equivalent to the divine command,
"Let the earth bring forth," is forever operative, changing the face of
nature and causing it to give expression to new forms of life as the
conditions thereof are changed, and these forms are spoken into existence
by the divine fiat.

In all the alternations of forest growths that are taking place to-day, on
this continent or elsewhere, this one vital law is traceable everywhere.
In the course of the next year, it will be as palpable in the Island of
Java, recently desolated by the most disastrous earthquake recorded in
history, as in any other portion of the earth, however free from such
volcanic action. On the very spot where mountain ranges disappeared in a
flaming sea of fire, and other ranges were thrown up in parallel lines but
on different bases, and where it was evident that every seed, plant, tree,
and thing of life perished in one common vortex of ruin, animal as well as
vegetable life will make its appearance in obedience to this law, as soon
as the rains shall again descend, cool the basaltic and other rocks, and
the life-giving power referred to by Isaiah once more become operative.
There is no more doubt of this in the mind of the learned naturalist, than
in that of the most devout believer of the Bible, from which this most
remarkable formula is taken.

We have no disposition to arraign the American and European "Agnostics,"
as they are pleased to call themselves, for using the term "Nature"
instead of God, in their philosophical writings.

As long as they are evidently earnest seekers after _Truth_ as it is to be
found in nature--the work of God--they are most welcome into the temple of
science, and their theories deserve our thoughtful consideration. It is
only when they become dogmatic, and assert propositions that have no
foundation in truth, as we sincerely believe, that we propose to break a
lance at their expense, and lay bare their fallacies. We claim nothing
more for ourself, as a scientific writer, than we are willing and ready to
accord to them. Indeed, we would champion their right to be heard sooner
than we would our own, on the principle that it is our duty to be just to
others before we are generous to ourselves, or those of our own following.
But our Agnostic friends should remember that when they charge us with
being "dogmatic in science," the charge should be made good from a
scientific stand-point, and not merely by the bandying of words.

When they tell us, for instance, that a toad has hibernated for a million
years in any one of the stratified rocks near the surface of the ground,
we interpose the objection that none of these batrachian forms can exist
for a period of more than twelve months without air and food. And yet they
have been blasted out of cavities in the surface rocks of the earth, where
they have apparently lain for the period named by our scientific friends
referred to. The fault is not ours, but theirs, that they are in error.
Had they determined to study the subject of life, as we have done, from
the Bible as well as from nature, they would have commenced at these
toad-producing rocks, and worked their way upward to the source of all
life, and not downward to the vanishing point--that where animal life
ceases in the azoic rocks. The batrachians are low down in the scale of
nature, but they have a determinate period of existence, as do all other
forms of life. Try your experiments with them; see how long they will live
without light, air, and food. This you can do as well as ourself. Conform
to all the conditions required--the absolute exclusion of light, air, and
food--and you will find that the toughest specimen experimented with is a
dead batrachian inside of one year.

This experimental test should settle the question of lengthened vitality
between us. There is no miracle about this matter at all, and science
finds no stumbling-block in the way of a complete explication of this
riddle, if, in the light of nature, there be any such riddle. We claim
there is not, when we interpret nature in the light of nature's God. Let
the earth, or rather its silicious and other decaying rocks, bring forth
these batrachian forms. The command is imperative and not dependent upon
any "seed" previously scattered or sown in the earth itself.

The father of the writer was Superintendent of the Green Mountain Turnpike
Company, extending from Bellows Falls to Rutland, Vt., from 1812 to 1832,
and worked every rod of that road many times over. From our earliest
boyhood we accompanied him on these working trips, attended by a large
force of laboring men, and our attention was early called to the
characteristics of these toad-producing rocks. The rotting slates, shales,
sandstones, shists, and rocks of various kinds, were often ploughed up by
the road-sides, and the _dA(C)bris_ scraped into the centre of the road-beds;
the heaviest ploughs of that day being used to cut through these wayside
rocks, and often requiring as many as six or eight yoke of oxen to break
the necessary furrow. In many of these decaying slates, shists, sandstones
etc., hundreds of young toads, many of them not more than half an inch in
length, were turned out at different seasons of the year, showing that
they were produced independently of any parent batrachian, there being no
trace of a mother toad in connection with them.

The parent toads bury themselves in the gardens and ploughed fields in the
early autumn, and if they survive the severity of the winter months, may
propagate their kind the second year, and probably for several years. But
they require remarkably favorable conditions to continue their life for
any considerable number of years in open-field propagation, while under no
circumstances whatever can they make their way into these decaying rocks
in order to propagate their species. The reason why such fresh specimens
appear under these circumstances, and in the cavities of the rocks named,
is conclusively that indicated by the prophet Isaiah, in the text quoted
by us; and when Professor Agassiz was forced to admit that trout must have
made their appearance in the fresh-water streams emptying into Lake
Superior, instead of originating elsewhere, it is to be regretted, for the
sake of science, that he did not boldly enunciate the formula of life as
taught by the eagle-eyed prophet of the Bible, and not as proclaimed by
the owl-eyed professors of the London University College.

What is true of the trout in these Lake Superior streams, is true of them
almost everywhere, even right in the town of Cheshire, Conn., where we are
inditing this preface, the 10th day of October, 1883. We recently visited
the Rev. David D. Bishop, in the northeastern portion of this township,
where that cultured gentleman was constructing an artificial trout-pond.
It was at a season of the greatest drought known for years in that portion
of the town.

The point selected for this trout-pond was at the farthest eastern source
of what is known as "Honey Pot" brook in Cheshire, a famous one for trout
in former years. Mr. Bishop proposed to stock his pond with the best spawn
he could procure. We remarked to him that there was no need of that
expense, as no stream ever produced better trout than the "Honey Pot"; and
on closely examining one of the six or eight cold springs developed in his
enclosure, to his surprise, not ours, we discovered several small trout,
not more than six weeks old, as lively as they could well be under the
blasting operations then going on there; while his children were fishing
out from the rocks any number of young frogs (of the common _Rana_
family), abounding wherever rocks and water make their appearance in
similar localities. This incident was all the more remarkable for the
reason that this small stream, or rather source of one, had been
apparently dry for months, as had been many of the best wells in the town.

Our well, in the western part of the town, had been dug some six feet
into the solid rock and an inexhaustible supply of the coldest water
secured. We invited our neighbors, those living on both sides of us, as
well as at some distance from us, to come and draw all the water they
wanted, remarking that they might now and then draw up a small frog,
originating therein, but that, by fishing him out of the pail, he would
make his way to the neighboring streams not dry, and would flourish well
enough as one of the _Rana_ family. It was only to our more intelligent
neighbors (such as Mr. Bishop) who had read our work on "Life," that we
stopped to explain this phenomenal fact. And so of all life, wherever it
appears, whether vegetable or animal. Our experiments with mosquitoes are
equally conclusive. Three years ago we took two barrels of rain-water
from our cistern, tightly covered; one barrel we left open to the warm
sun and air, and the other we covered with the finest mosquito netting.
The barrel left open was soon thronged with mosquitoes, constructing
their little rafts of eggs and paving their way for the swarms of young
wigglers that in the course of a week or two made their appearance in the
open barrel in immense numbers. The process by which these wigglers hatch
out into mosquitoes is an interesting one, and will bear the closest
study, as well as scientifically pay for watching the operation. At the
proper time they come to the surface of the water, undergo a palpable
modification in their structure, and beautifully burgeon forth into the
tormenting little insects that they are during the summer and autumn
months in our Northern climate. The object of the covered barrel was to
ascertain whether we could reach the conditions favorable for the
development of this little pest of the _Culex_ family, independently of
the eggs of the insect itself. This required some patience and not a
little care. We knew that an egg dropped through the interstices of the
netting would sink to the bottom of the water and fail to germinate, as
every scientist understanding the process well knows. It must be floated
on the water at first, or until it reaches the point of development into
a wiggler. The first step in the process of its life is as cunningly
devised as the second, and the second as the third, until the
full-fledged mosquito is reached.

All precautions must be taken against any mistake or error in the
experiment named. But we persevered and found nature responsive to our
demands. Wigglers after awhile made their appearance sparsely in the
covered barrel, but the mosquitoes developed from them proved innocuous of
harm, as we kept the barrel covered, and they were soon drowned in the
water, not having sufficient area of flight to answer the conditions of
their life. We might instance some remarkable discoveries in the vegetable
world, showing conclusively that plants and trees come without seed, and
we feel the more pride in this discovery because we have been assured by
Prof. Othniel C. Marsh, of Yale College, a gentleman highly distinguished
in his specialties, that if we would show that an oak tree came without an
acorn, he would abandon Evolution and accept the exposition given by us of
the Bible genesis; but we have no special ambition to make so eminent a
convert from Herbert Spencer's ranks. He is a much younger man than
ourself, but the great English Evolutionist or Involutionist, whichever he
may ultimately decide to call himself, is about the writer's own age, and,
for special reasons, he would prefer to win him to the vital side of this
question, that he may act with Professor Beale in the great controversy
now waging in England on this subject, and we will assure both Prof.
Marsh, and his friend, Herbert Spencer, that if either of them will show
that an acorn comes without an oak tree, we will abandon any position we
have taken on this subject, and accept theirs, however absurdly (to our
mind) it may have been taken in the past. We know that "tall oaks from
little acorns grow;" but that is when man becomes the sower of seed, and
knows the origin of each specific tree that is brought forth. When we talk
about the squirrel, or the birds becoming the "sowers of seeds,"
especially the acorns, we are talking at random, and without any certain
knowledge. This we say with all due deference and respect to our learned
Agnostic friends, and wish they would treat their vitalistic brothers with
the same becoming courtesy.

In a work which we have now in preparation for the press, to be entitled
"Biodynamics; or, The Laws of Life," we shall give this "seed question" a
more exhaustive inquiry than we have yet done.

Our proofs in regard to one form of life are equally applicable to any
other plant, insect, or animal, and there is no greater or less mystery in
the life of a blade of grass than in the cedar of Lebanon figuring so
conspicuously in the historic page.

When the Nile overflowed its banks in ancient times, and caused the young
frogs to swarm up as a pest upon the Egyptians, the same law of life was
operative in that land, as when warm thunder-showers pelt the earth with
us in the summer season, causing hundreds and thousands of these
batrachians to come out of the gritty waysides, and swarm along our
highways and by-ways, leading ignorant and thoughtless people to suppose
that they have rained down from the sky. The simple fact is, that the
earth was commanded to bring them forth, and that great mother of all
vegetable and animal life is obeying the command to-day, just as she did
in the beginning.

One of the greatest errors that science has yet committed, or rather that
scientific men have stumbled upon, is the theory that all living forms
have appeared but once in time and place, and that they have thence
diffused themselves, in pairs, throughout the globe, as from specific
centres of origin. In the primeval oceans, whenever and wherever the
environing conditions of matter were the same or identical, the like
living forms made their appearance and flourished for hundreds and
thousands of years, and finally disappeared, in a fossilized state, as
their environing conditions were changed. They came not genetically--as in
pairs--but thronged the seas in thousands and millions as the divine edict
went forth.

As another conclusive proof, to our mind, of the existence of this law of
life, we instance the case of the mango-tree growing in the West India
Islands, especially along the sea-shore, where it becomes the natural
_habitat_ of the oyster. It is the belief of some ignorant persons that
the oyster climbs these trees and deposits its spawn or "spat" upon the
extreme limbs of the same as they bend down toward the water. This is
manifestly an error, and belongs to the same class of fallacies as the
common impression that toads rain down from the sky. The smaller
mango-trees growing about the bays and inlets of these islands, furnish,
as we have said, a natural _habitat_ for the oyster, and as the salt
sea-spray washes their roots and the bark of their trunks, the long
thin-shelled oysters of that region make their appearance thereon without
the presence of spawn, just as they do when old oyster-shells are dumped
along our sand-banks in New England. On these dumped shells oysters will
be produced abundantly, simply because the conditions are favorable, and
not in consequence of the presence of "spat." Oysters have little, if any,
locomotive power, and can no more climb the mango-tree than they can scale
the cliffs of the Azores. The reason why they hang in pendent clusters
from the extreme boughs of the mango in the West India Islands is, that
these boughs are sprayed upon by the rippling waters, and the environing
conditions being favorable, the indifferent oyster of that region makes
its appearance.

There has been no migration of the oyster from one centre of origin to
another, any more than there has been a transference of the white whale
from the arctic seas to the fiery equator. Every thing has its place in
nature, and comes with or without seed as natural laws determine. During
the last year I have gathered cedar trees that did not make their
appearance till late in August and September, long after the seed of the
previous year had entirely disappeared, and there was no more life in them
than there is in acorns that have crossed the Atlantic a dozen times in
bulk. And the late Henry D. Thoreau, in his "Excursions," says that they
will not stand one such shipment to Europe, and that every acorn that does
not sprout by the end of November of the year it matures, is hopelessly a
dead acorn. This is in harmony with our experience, and we have no doubt
of the correctness of his observations. How absurd, then, to suppose that
acorns can retain their vitality so as to germinate after years of
out-door or other exposure. The seeds of forest-trees that mature in May
and June, or the majority of them at least, have to be planted in those
months, as all persons engaged in forest culture well know. This is
specially true of cedars and oaks, as well as of elms and maples.

Study the paleontological facts as given by Prof. Frederick McCoy, of the
University of Melbourne, in Australia, a gentleman highly distinguished
for his learning and research. He has explored portions of that continent
as far down as the azoic rocks, and made many important discoveries as to
the past life of the globe. His researches have been especially rich in
the Cambrian or Lower Silurian epochs, and have led to many modifications
in the classification of the various forms of life pervading those earlier
periods, and we may say that the facts he has brought to light tend
strongly to show the correctness of our theory as taken from the biblical
text; as, for instance, the _Trilobites_, occurring so abundantly in what
is known as the Utica slates. Wherever the slates make their appearance,
whether in Australia, America, or any portion of Europe, this fossil,
characteristic of the Silurian and Devonian systems, appeared, not so much
in time and place as in extended localities and conditions--indicating the
presence of a law of life such as we have enunciated. We once inquired of
the elder Prof. Silliman how long it took for the formation of one of
these periods or systems? His reply was curt and pertinent: "It took long
enough, young man!" That satisfied us at the time, and we have never asked
the question since. It is prying beyond scientific depth, and the ablest
scholars in the world will so regard it in the end.

All fossils follow the same developmental law, and seem to have been
governed by corresponding conditions everywhere. The doctrine of "_similia
similibus gignuntur_"--similar conditions producing similar forms--obtains
universally. The _Graptolites_, occurring in the bituminous shales of the
Silurian sandstone period, afford only another instance of the same law to
which we have called the attention of our readers. In fact, the annals of
natural history abound in the most conclusive proofs, as well in the
fossilized as the living world, of what the paramount text of the Bible
teaches us.

When Professor Ehrenberg, one of the most distinguished classifiers of
minute forms of life in the world, declared, as he recently did before the
Royal Geographical Society of London, that there was "a great invisible
rock-and earth-forming life in nature," he came pretty near enunciating a
great truth in science; and had he connected his language with the
induction of "environing conditions" and the sequence of life therefrom,
he would have accomplished what we undertook to do in our work begun
several years ago, but not completed and published until 1880. For it will
be seen that we had been gathering the material for "Life: Its True
Genesis" for many years before we sat down to the task of writing it.

When we said to one of our most intimate college friends that we were less
than six months preparing it for the press, we stated what was literally
true; but we had no intention of giving him to understand that we had
spent only that time in gathering the vast amount of material at our
command--twenty times as much as we could possibly use in the preparation
of such a volume for the press. The long months and even years of toil and
study spent by us in the needful preparation, were a part of the labor, as
every author, writing intelligently on any subject, knows. The immense
amount of care and labor that enabled Hermann von Meyer to prepare his
paper on the _ArchA|opterix_, rescued from the lithographic slate, is a
case in point, as showing how small apparently the labor of accomplishing
a great work for science. The time devoted to preparing the paper was
trifling as compared with the result of his achievement. And so with every
one who enters the temple of science with a devout wish to attain success.

It will be apparent to the religious mind of this country and England, if
not to that of Mr. Tyndall himself, that, if the exegetical rendering we
have extended to the Bible be correct, there is no necessity whatever for
the vast uncomputed periods of time intervening the different geological
strata, to which that scientific gentleman refers in his fanciful musings
upon the Matterhorn!

Nor is there any such necessity for it, if what Professor Ehrenberg says
be true in regard to the basaltic rocks thrown up by volcanic action in
the Island of St. Paul. For if these rocks possess this mysterious power
of life, He who made them manifestly imparted it. One thing is certain, at
least, the rocks did not make themselves; nor did they impart to
themselves any life-originating power after they were made. The same power
that originated them originated all their characteristic properties, and
the same may be said of Professor Tyndall's "sky-mist" or any other
mistier name suggested by scientific men. We have only to take the
"Thesaurus" of the Silurian period, and connect it with the induction of
the biblical text, and we shall see that the forms characteristic of that
period appeared not only synchronously in time and space, but also in
physical conditions, and consequently, that no immense epochs were
expended in the propagation, of species on the "two-pair" theory of our
materialistic friends. They simply flourished over vast areas for a while,
and were then locked up as fossils where they are now found. How long it
took for this transformation to take place is manifestly beyond any data
we may now have for determining. In the case of some artificial baths in
which crystalline forms appear, we know that it takes only a few weeks at
least, and why should natural processes be any more delinquent or
defective in their operation than those that are purely artificial?
Remember that we are not "musing on the Matterhorn" as was the gifted
English naturalist, but upon the text of the equally gifted Isaiah, and
pondering the works of God as seen by the devout prophet in his day. When
Mr. Tyndall can tell us how long it took God to lift the towering
Matterhorn from its base, he will be in a frame of mind to answer the
other problems involved in the controversy between us. In an instant--the
twinkling of an eye--some of these phenomena have occurred, and recent
events, such as wide volcanic disturbances, show how idle it is for man to
place a limit to the power of the Most High. Even the "red snow,"
unmistakably a vegetal formation, appearing at times on the loftier Alps,
is as much a proof of God's power as the ragged mountain peaks on which it
appears--covering vast areas within a few hours' time.

Scottish book of the year goes to Kieron Smith, Boy by James Kelman

The barrister Constance Briscoe has won the libel case brought against her by her mother, Carmen Briscoe-Mitchell, over her bestselling misery memoir Ugly, in which she accused Briscoe-Mitchell of childhood cruelty and neglect.

Briscoe-Mitchell claimed the allegations were "a piece of fiction", and sued Briscoe and her publishers Hodder & Stoughton for libel.

A 10-day hearing at the high court in London concluded earlier today with a unanimous verdict from the jury after more than a day's deliberation. Speaking outside the court, Briscoe, a part-time judge, said she was "very happy" with the verdict.

"It is sad that my mother still feels the need to pursue me. Now I just want to get on with my career," she said. "I can quite understand why my family went into collective denial, but whilst child abuse may be committed behind closed doors, it should never be swept under the carpet."

The hearing saw Briscoe tell Mr Justice Tugendhat and a jury how her mother beat her with a stick for wetting the bed, called her a "dirty little whore" and drove her to attempt suicide by drinking bleach.

Briscoe's account of her upbringing was published in 2006 and has sold more than 400,000 copies in the UK.

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Would you have your ashes scattered in Jane Austen's garden?
American film producer to publish version of the Bible in which God says it is better to be gay than straight

The royal family doesn't need a poet

The power of Jane Austen never ceases to amaze: the myriad film and TV adaptations, the biopics, the spin-off self-help books, the novels about Austen book clubs and Austen obsessives and even, next spring, the publication of a book about "how Jane Austen conquered the world" (Jane's Fame, by Clare Harman). And now comes the just-too-weird story that deceased fans of Jane Austen have been banned from having their ashes scattered in her garden. In a letter to the Jane Austen Society, Louise West, the collections manager of Jane Austen's House Museum, wrote: "While we understand many admirers of Jane Austen would love to have ashes laid here, it is something we do not allow. It is distressing for visitors to see mounds of human ash, particularly so for our gardener. Also, it is of no benefit to the garden!" (Or is it? Surely a small quantity of fresh ashes judiciously placed beneath a hydrangea bush is just the ticket?)

Anyway, leaving aside the Gardeners' Question Time minutiae, what on earth is going on here? I like an Austen novel as much as the next person – I probably reread my way through the complete works every couple of years – but I am baffled as to why one would want to be laid to rest among the flowerbeds of Chawton. The only explanation is the currently unstoppable power of the Austen cult, fuelled by Colin Firth in a wet blouse, by Andrew Davies's adaptations, and by Hollywood. I'm all for enjoying books, but the cult of Austen has reached ridiculous proportions. In a post-feminist world that should know better, she seems to be adored as the comforting provider of romantic, happy-endings nonsense instead of the sharp and acerbic social satirist she deserves to be seen as.

(Does anyone actually believe her, by the way, when she foretells a happy marriage for Darcey and Elizabeth? I fear a woman as interesting as Elizabeth would be sorely disappointed with this standard-issue British Repressed Public-school Man - hopeless emotionally, and probably hopeless in bed.)

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