74 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



He divided scientific doctrines into those which 

 are actually proved and perfectly determined, 

 which we may give out as real science in the 

 strictest sense of the word ; and those which are 

 still to be proved, but which, in the mean time, 

 may be taught with a certain amount of proba- 

 bility, in order to fill up gaps in our knowledge. 

 Doctrines of the former class must be completely 

 admitted into the scientific treasure of the nation, 

 and must become part of the nation itself; they 

 must modify the whole method of thinking. For 

 an example of such a doctrine he took the great 

 increase in our knowledge of the eye and its 

 working, which has come to us in recent times, 

 and the doctrine of perception founded upon it. 

 Things so well known as this, he said, must be 

 taught to children in the schools. " If the theory 

 of descent is as certain as Prof. Haeckel thinks it 

 is, then we must demand its admission into the 

 school, and this demand is a necessary one." 

 And this, even although there is danger of an 

 alliauce between socialism and the doctrine of 

 evolution. 



But, he went on to say, there are parts of the 

 evolution theory which are not yet established 

 scientific doctrines in the sense that they ought 

 to be taught dogmatically in schools. Of these 

 he specially named two : the spontaneous genera- 

 tion of living matter out of inorganic bodies, with- 

 out the presence of previously-living matter ; and 

 the descent of man from some non-human verte- 

 brate animal. These, he said, are problems ; we 

 may think it ever so probable that living matter 

 has been formed out of non-living matter, and 

 that man has descended from an ape-like ances- 

 tor ; we may fully expect that evidence will short- 

 ly be forthcoming to establish these statements ; 

 but, meanwhile, we must not teach them as known 

 and established scientific facts. We ought to say : 

 " Do not take this for established truth, be pre- 

 pared to find that it is otherwise ; only for the 

 moment we are of opinion that it may be true." 



There is something, I think, very natural and 

 very charming in this scene. The young apos- 

 tle is full of faith and hope ; he has fought his 

 way, undaunted by little stumbles and disappoint- 

 ments, through great morasses of difficulty, and 

 always he has seen his gospel steadily marching 

 on to its triumphant subjugation of the ideal 

 world ; and before this gospel accordingly he 

 summons the practical world to bow down. " Not 

 so fast," says the veteran, who, in his time, in- 

 deed, has been bold enough, and taken sober 

 men's breath away ; but who now marches with 

 careful steps, and is conscious of his balance. 



" Don't be quite so sure about it ; you will turn 

 everything upside down." One is glad that on a 

 great occasion both sides had their say, and that 

 the word of caution came last, being prompted 

 by the word of courage ; and one hopes that on 

 all similar occasions there may be courage enough 

 to justify a like word of caution. 



It is also very natural that this speech should 

 have been a source of great relief and comfort to 

 many who did not want to believe in the doctrine 

 of descent, and who feared that, somehow, they 

 were going to be made to believe in it. It seemed 

 to them, in Dr. Tyndall's words, that "the world 

 — even the clerical world — had, for the most part, 

 settled down in the belief that Mr. Darwin's book 

 (' The Origin of Species ') simply reflects the 

 truth of Nature ; " and that, on the penalty of 

 appearing somewhat singular, they would have to 

 settle down in the same belief themselves. But 

 here is a very eminent scientific man who says he 

 is not quite sure about it ; so the world, having 

 only settled down under the supposed weight of 

 an authority which it is not yet very fond of, be- 

 gins to unsettle itself again ; and one need not 

 be at all singular in saying that there is really 

 nothing in the doctrine of evolution, because it is 

 not yet supported by facts. Indeed, the world 

 has become so much impressed with the impor- 

 tance of the rule that you should not teach as a 

 known fact that which is not a known fact, that 

 we may almost expect to hear a bishop declare 

 from his cathedral pulpit that the authorship of 

 the Fourth Gospel is a doubtful question, and 

 that a man would be rash who fully made up his 

 mind to ascribe it to the apostle John. 



It may, therefore, not seem amiss in one who 

 is no biologist, who is, therefore, a layman in re- 

 gard to this question of organic evolution, if he 

 should endeavor to lay to heart the warnings of 

 Virchow, and inquire what practical bearing they 

 have on the state of things in our own country. 

 This is what I now propose to do ; but I shall 

 confine myself in the main to the question of 

 school-teaching. I speak as a householder to 

 householders, on this matter of grave and com- 

 mon concern : what shall we have taught to our 

 children ? Of all the questions discussed in Yir- 

 chow's speech, this seems to me the most prac- 

 tical, and the most interesting to us as a people. 



For I do not think that we in England have 

 much cause to fear either a reaction which shall 

 stop the mouth of the scientific teacher, or a 

 socialist revolution founded on the doctrine of 

 descent. It is true that there are some among 

 | us who seriously dislike "science," and who look 



