352 THE CASE AGAINST EVOLUTION 



mous with "such stuff as dreams are made of," unworthy to 

 be mentioned in the same breath with physical science — "Es 

 gibt fiir uns kein anderes Erkennen als das mechanische, . . . 

 Nur mechanisch begreifen ist Wissenschaft." (Du Bois- 

 Reymond.) 



In practice, therefore, if not in theory, the tendency of evo- 

 lution has been to unspiritualize and dereligionize the philos- 

 ophy of its adherents, a tendency which is strikingly exempli- 

 fied in one of its greatest exponents, Charles Darwin himself. 

 The English naturalist began his scientific career as a theist 

 and a spiritualist. He ended it as an agnostic and a ma- 

 terialist. His evolutionary philosophy was, by his own con- 

 fession, responsible for the transformation. "When thus re- 

 flecting," he says, "I feel compelled to look to a first cause 

 having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that 

 of man, and I deserve to be called a Theist. This conclusion 

 was strong in my mind about the time, as far as I remember, 

 when I wrote the 'Origin of Species'; and it is since that time 

 that it has very gradually, with many fluctuations, become 

 weaker. But then arises the doubt, can the mind of man, 

 which has, as I fully believe, been developed from a mind 

 as low as that possessed by the lowest animals, be trusted 

 when it draws such grand conclusions? I can not pretend to 

 throw the least light on such abstruse problems. The mystery 

 of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I, for 

 one, must be content to remain an Agnostic." ("The Life and 

 Letters of Charles Darwin," edited by Francis Darwin, 1887, 

 vol. I, p. 282.) 



Darwin likewise exemplifies in his own person the destruc- 

 tive influence exercised upon the aesthetic sense by exclusive 

 adherence to the monistic viewpoint. Having alluded in his 

 autobiography to his former predilection for poetry, music, and 

 the beauties of nature, he continues as follows: "But now for 

 many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry: I have 

 tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found that it nauseated 

 me. I have also lost my taste for pictures and music. ... I 



