THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



SEPTEMBER, 1886. 



EX-PEESIDENT POETEE ON EYOLUTION * 



By W. D. LE SUEUE, B. A. 



THE great intellectual issue of the present day, however some may- 

 try to disguise it, is that between dogma on the one hand and the 

 free spirit of scientific inquiry on the other. In using the word dogma, 

 we have no wish to employ the argument ad invidiam, to take ad- 

 vantage, that is to say, of the popular prejudice no doubt attaching to 

 recognized dogmatism. No, we frankly confess at the outset that a 

 man may argue for dogma without betraying any dogmatic spirit ; 

 and that there would therefore be no fairness in embracing dogma 

 and dogmatism in a common condemnation. None the less do we 

 maintain that dogma is opposed to the free scientific spirit ; and that 

 the world is now being summoned to decide which of the two it will 

 take for its guide. A definition of dogma, as we understand it, is. 

 therefore in order. By dogma we mean a traditional opinion held 

 and defended on account of its assumed practical value, rather than 

 on account of its truth an opinion that is felt to require defending ; 

 that, like our " infant industries," needs protection ; and round which 

 its supporters rally accordingly. When great and special efforts are 

 being made to place and keep a certain opinion on its legs, so to 

 speak, be sure that it is a dogma that is concerned, and not any prod- 

 uct of the free intellectual activity of mankind. 



The last writer of eminence who has " come up to the help of the 

 Lord against the mighty," or, in other words, to the help of ortho- 

 doxy against evolution, is Dr. Noah Porter, ex-President o Yale. 

 Dr. Porter is a man who has lived for many years in an atmosphere 

 of philosophical discussion, as well as of high literary cultivation ; and 



* Evolution. A Lecture read before the Nineteenth Century Club, May 25, 1886. By 

 Noah Porter, D. D., LL. D., ex-President of Yale College. Herbert L. Bridgman, 55 Park. 

 Place, New York. 1886. Pp. 33. 

 VOL. XXIX. 37 



