140 The Bible of Nature 



"ultra-scientific causes," "spiritual influxes," 

 et hoc genus omne; let us cease writing or reading 

 books with titles like " God or Natural Selection," 

 whose initial false antinomy is sufficient index of 

 their misunderstanding. Not, of course, that we 

 are objecting for a moment to any metaphysical 

 or theological interpretations whatsoever; we are 

 simply stating the commonplace that it is unprofit- 

 able to try to talk two languages at once, that we 

 cannot with sanity have scientific formulae mixed 

 up with transcendental formulae in one sentence; 

 and that to place these against one another is to 

 oppose incommensurables and to display an ig- 

 norance of what the aim of science is. The great 

 French physiologist Claude Bernard has written, 

 '' I am persuaded that the day will come when the 

 physiologist, the poet, and the philosopher will 

 speak the same language and will understand one 

 another." * We feel sure about the second part 

 of this prophecy, that there will be mutual under- 

 standing; but we cannot even hope for the day 

 when physiologist, poet, and philosopher will 

 speak the same language. 



The Actual History as Disclosed by the Palaeontol- 

 ogists. Returning to the actual history of the 

 forms of life and of course the succession of 



1 " Je suis persuad^ qu'un jour viendra ou le physiologiste, 

 le poete, et le philosophe parleront la meme langle et 

 s'entendront tous." 



