286 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and anything that helps them to this end is welcomed, whether it be 

 atheism or papal infallibility. For long years the Socialists saw church 

 and state united against them, and both were therefore regarded with 

 a common hatred. But no sooner does a serious difference arise between 

 church and state, than a portion of the Socialists begin immediately 

 to dally with the former.' The experience of the last German elections 

 illustrates Lange's position. Far nobler and truer to my mind than 

 this fear of promoting socialism by a scientific theory which the best 

 and soberest heads in the world have substantially accepted, is the 

 position assumed by Helmholtz, who in his "Popular Lectures" de- 

 scribes Darwin's theory as embracing "an essentially new creative 

 thought" (einen wesentlich neuen schopferischen Gedanken), and who 

 illustrates the greatness of this thought by copious references to the 

 solutions, previously undreamed of, which it offers of the enigmas of 

 life and organization. One point in this " popular" exposition deserves 

 especial mention here. Helmholtz refers to the dominant position 

 acquired by Germany in physiology and medicine, while other nations 

 have kept abreast of her in the investigation of inorganic Nature. He 

 claims for German men the credit of pursuing with unflagging zeal and 

 self-denying industry, guided by ideal aims, and without any immediate 

 prospect of practical utility, the cultivation of pure science. But that 

 which has determined German superiority in the fields referred to was, 

 in his opinion, something different from this. Inquiries as to the nature 

 of life are intimately connected with psychological and ethical ques- 

 tions ; and he claims for his countrymen a greater fearlessness of the 

 consequences which a full knowledge of the truth may here carry along 

 with it than reigns among the inquirers of other nations. Helmholtz 

 points to the cause of this timidity: 



"England and France possess distinguished investigators — men competent 

 to follow np and illustrate with vigorous energy the methods of natural science ; 

 but they have hitherto been compelled to bend before social and theological 

 prejudices, and could only utter their convictions under the penalty of injuring 

 their social influence and usefulness. Germany has gone forward more coura- 

 geously. She has cherished the trust, whicli has never been deceived, that com- 

 plete truth carries with it the antidote against the bane and danger which follow 

 in the train of half-knowledge. A cheerfully laborious and temperate people — 

 a people morally strong — can well afford to look truth full in the face. Nor are 

 they to be ruined by the enunciation of one-sided theories, even when these 

 may appear to threaten the bases of society." 



These words of Helmholtz are, in my opinion, wiser and more appli- 

 cable to the condition of Germany at the present moment than those 

 which express the fears of Prof. Yirchow. It will be remembered that 

 at the time of his lecture his chief anxiety was directed toward France; 

 but France has since that time given ample evidence of her ability to 



' " Geschichte des Materialismus," zweite Aufl., vol. ii., p. 538. 



