142 THE FOUNDATIONS OF ZOOLOGY 



The order of nature has outlasted many systems of philosophy, 

 and it may survive others. We have found our astronomy and 

 our geology and our law of the mutability of species, and none 

 of the dreadful things predicted by "philosophers" have come 

 about. There may still be more things in heaven and earth than 

 are dreamed of in "philosophy." 



History warns us that, as the price of progress in science, 

 all the idols of the theatre, and all other idols, "must be abjured 

 and renounced with firm and solemn resolution, and the under- 

 standing must be completely freed and cleared of them; so that 

 the access to the kingdom of man, which is founded on the 

 sciences, may resemble that to the kingdom of heaven, where no 

 admission is conceded except to children." 



If the world thinks hard names are the just due of them who 

 assert their living wish to know, while humbly confessing igno- 

 rance, the biologist must bear up as well as he can if he is called 

 a " scientific Rip Van Winkle," or an " agnostic," or even " a malig- 

 nant and a turban'd Turk." 



If we seek admission to the temple of natural knowledge 

 naked and not ashamed, like little children, hard names cannot 

 hurt us, nor need they scare us. 



