SCIENTIFIC SPECULATIONS ON THE AGE OF THE GLOBE May we not be permitted to throw a glance at the works of Specialists? The work on Comparative Geology: the World-Life, by Prof. A. Winchell, furnishes us with curious data. Here we find an opponent of the Nebular theory, a reverend gentleman, smiting with all the force of the hammer of his odium theologicum on the rather contradictory hypothesis of the great stars of Science, in the matter of sidereal and cosmical phenomena based on their respective relations to terrestrial durations. The too imaginative physicists and naturalists do not fare very easily under this shower of their own speculative figures when placed side by side, and cut rather a sorry figure. Thus he shows: Sir William Thomson, on the basis of the observed principles of cooling, concludes that no more than ten million years (elsewhere he makes it 100,000,000) can have elapsed since the temperature of the Earth was sufficiently reduced to sustain vegetable life. 1 Helmholz calculates that twenty million years would suffice for the original nebula to condense to the present dimensions of the sun. Prof. S. Newcomb requires only ten millions to attain a temperature of 212° Fahr. 2 Croll estimates seventy million years for the diffusion of the heat, etc.3 Bischof calculates that 350 million years would be required for the earth to cool from a temperature of 2,000° to 200° Centigrade. Read, basing his estimate on observed rates of denudation, demands 500 million years since sedimentation began in Europe.4 Lyell ventured a rough guess of 240 million years; Darwin thought 300 million years demanded by the organic transformations which his theory contemplates, and Huxley is disposed to demand a 1,000 millions (!!). To this Prof. Winchell observes that some biologists . . . . seem to close their eyes tight and leap at one bound into the abyss of millions of years, of which they have no more adequate estimate than of infinity. 5 Then he proceeds to give what he takes to be more correct geological figures: a few will suffice. According to Sir W. Thomson the whole incrusted age of the world is 80,000,000 years; and agreeably with Prof. Houghtons calculations of a minimum limit for the time since the elevation of Europe and Asia, three hypothetical ages for three possible and different modes of upheaval are given: varying from the modest figures of 640,730 years, through 4,170,000 years to the tremendous figures of 27,491,000 years!! This is enough, as one can see, to cover our claims for the four continents and even the figures of the Brahmins. Further calculations, the details of which the reader may find in Prof. Winchells work, 6 bring Houghton to an approximation of the sedimentary age of the globe – 11,700,000 years. These figures are found too small by the author, who forthwith extends them to 37,000,000 years. Again, according to Croll,7 2,500,000 years represents the time since the beginning of the Tertiary age in one work; and according to another modification of his view, 15,000,000 only have elapsed since the beginning of the Eocene period; 8 which, being the first of the three Tertiary periods, leaves the student suspended between 2 ½ and 15 millions. But if one has to hold to the former moderate figures, then the whole incrusted age of the world would be 131,600,000 years. 9 As the last glacial period extended from 240,000 to 80,000 years ago (Prof. Crolls view), therefore, man must have appeared on earth from 100 to 120,000 years ago. But, as says Prof. Winchell, with reference to the antiquity of the Mediterranean race, it is generally believed to have made its appearance during the later decline of the continental glaciers. Yet, he adds, this does not concern, however, the antiquity of the Black and Brown races, since there are numerous evidences of their existence in more southern regions, in times remotely pre-glacial (p. 379). As a specimen of geological certainty and agreement, these figures also may be added. Three authorities – Messrs. T. Belt, F.G.S.; J. Croll, F.R.S.; and Robert Hunt, F.R.S., – in estimating the time that has elapsed since the Glacial epoch, give absolutely different figures, namely: Mr. Belt .......... 20,000 years. Mr. J. Croll ... 240,000 Mr. R. Hunt ... 80,000 (But see The Ice-Age Climate and Time, Popular Science Review, Vol. xiv., p. 242.) No wonder if Mr. Pengelly confesses that it is at present and perhaps always will be IMPOSSIBLE to reduce, even approximately, geological time into years or even into millenniums (Vide supra, foot-note). A wise word of advice from the Occultists to the gentlemen geologists: they ought to imitate the cautious example of Masons. As chronology, they say, cannot measure the era of the creation, therefore, their Ancient and Primitive Rite uses 000,000,000 as the nearest approach to reality. The same uncertainty, contradictions and disagreement reign on all other subjects. The scientific authorities on the Descent of Man are again, for all practical purposes, a delusion and a snare. There are many anti-Darwinists in the British Association, and Natural Selection begins to lose ground. Though at one time the saviour, which seemed to rescue the learned theorists from a final intellectual collapse into the abyss of fruitless hypothesis, it begins to be distrusted. Even Mr. Huxley is showing signs of truancy to Selection, and thinks natural selection not the sole factor: We greatly suspect that she (Nature) does make considerable jumps in the way of variation now and then, and that these saltations give rise to some of the gaps which appear to exist in the series of known forms (Review of Kollikers Criticisms). Again, in Fallacies of Darwinism, (p. 160), C. R. Bree, M.D., argues in this wise in considering the fatal gaps in Mr. Darwins theory: It must be again called to mind that the intermediate forms must have been vast in numbers. . . . . Mr. St. George Mivart believes that change in evolution may occur more quickly than is generally believed; but Mr. Darwin sticks manfully to his belief, and again tells us natura non facit saltum – wherein the Occultists are at one with Mr. Darwin. Esoteric teaching fully corroborates the idea of natures slowness and dignified progression. Planetary impulses are all periodical. Yet this Darwinian theory, correct as it is in minor particulars, agrees no more with Occultism than with Mr. Wallace, who, in his Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection, shows pretty conclusively that something more than natural selection was requisite to produce physical man. 1 Nat. Philos. App. D., Trans. Royal Soc., Edin. 2 Popular Astronomy, p. 509. 3 Climate and Time, p. 335. 4 Read. Address, Liverpool Geolog. Society, 1876. 5 World-Life, p. 180. 6 World-Life, pp. 367-8. 7 Climate and Time. 8 Quoted in Mr. Ch. Goulds Mythical Monsters, p. 84. 9 According to Bischof, 1,004,177 years – according to Chevandiers calculations 672,788 years – were required for the so-called coal formation. The tertiary strata, about 1,000 feet in thickness, required for their development about 350,000 years. See Force and Matter, Buchner, J. F. Collingwoods edition. The Secret Doctrine, ii 694–696 H. P. Blavatsky
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 11:23:51 +0000
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