EDITOR'S TABLE. 



109 



tolerated upon pain of eternal retribu- 

 tion. Science, on the contrary, begins 

 with questioning, and, by insisting upon 

 evidence, has restricted the sphere of 

 speculation, and made belief more a 

 matter of reason, and in this way it has 

 done much to destroy the dogmatic 

 spirit. Yet this tendency to dogmatism 

 is so deep and strong in human nature, 

 as at present trained, that even scien- 

 tific men often yield to it, and put their 

 baseless speculations in place of science, 

 and here is a German savant of great 

 authority who says so." This is prob- 

 ably what Prof. Gray meant if he had 

 explained himself more fully, for sure- 

 ly one cannot suppose he intended to 

 encourage the bad habits of one class 

 by telling them how bad are those of 

 another. 



Let us now glance for a moment at 

 Virchow's test of what ought to go into 

 the schools. Prof. Gray quotes the 

 following passage : " From the moment 

 when we had become convinced that 

 the evolution theory was a perfectly 

 established doctrine so certain that 

 we could pledge our oath to it from 

 that moment we could not dare to feel 

 any scruple about introducing it into 

 our actual life, and not only communi- 

 cating it to every educated man, but 

 imparting it to every child, . . . and 

 basing upon it our whole system of 

 education." To this the reply is, first, 

 that the standard taken is impractica- 

 ble, and, if adopted, would abolish edu- 

 cation altogether ; and, second, if it is 

 lowered, as it must be, evolution can- 

 not be kept out of the schools. 



It is important to remember here th at 

 Virchow is an evolutionist not, per- 

 haps, an "advanced" evolutionist, but, 

 as Prof. Gray recognizes, a "pronounced 

 evolutionist," like himself, we suppose. 

 And, if so, it must be because there is a 

 certain amount of truth in the doctrine. 

 But, forthe purpose here contemplated, 

 the question is not whether evolution 

 is completely proved it is simply 

 whether there is sufficient truth and 



value in it to make its introduction 

 into the schools an improvement upon 

 their existing practice. Now, if evo- 

 lution is true at all, as admitted by 

 Virchow and Gray, and by the leading 

 thinkers of the time, it must, by the 

 very nature of the idea, be a verity in 

 regard to the great method of things 

 around us how they come, and how 

 they go, and how they are related to 

 each other in the genetical order. Evo- 

 lution must embody a truth to this ex- 

 tent, from the very necessity of the case, 

 or it contains no truth at all. It is, by 

 its definition, an unfolding in the course 

 of Nature. That there are numerous 

 imperfections in it, matters nothing, for 

 no science is perfect. Astronomy, 

 based upon physics and mathematics, 

 has ranked as the most perfect of the 

 sciences ; but, if any one wishes to 

 understand how imperfect it really is, 

 let him read Prof. Newcomb's new 

 book upon the subject. Chemistry is 

 in a state of revolution, and physics is 

 full of unsettled theories. What, in 

 fact, is science but imperfect sciences 

 getting rid of their errors and limita- 

 tions ? 



As to evolution, it is enough that it 

 is a mental view which answers to a 

 great reality. Whether it is to be rec- 

 ognized, is not an open question ; it 

 is already in the field as a power that 

 is modifying almost every branch of 

 knowledge. It is guiding investiga- 

 tions in the pathway of successful re- 

 search; it is the broadest principle of 

 unification in Nature that the human 

 mind has yet reached. Can so compre- 

 hensive and all-harmonizing a truth be 

 without value as a means of mental 

 culture? Whether Haeckel was wise 

 or not in demanding its formal intro- 

 duction into the schools, it is certain 

 that the powers which control the Ger- 

 man Empire cannot keep it out of the 

 schools. Nothing would be more fu- 

 tile than to demand the teaching of 

 the development theory in the schools 

 of this country, except, perhaps, the 



