478 THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



connexion in existence, a principle that could be set up in opposition to 

 the theories of ideas held by reactionary romanticism. The deficiencies in 

 Darwin's work were therefore readily overlooked — his vague starting- 

 point, his uncritical material, his weak arguments based on loose assump- 

 tions, his belief in the power of chance and of finality as an explanation of 

 nature. As a matter of fact, the natural explanations of the preceding ages 

 failed still more in that respect; they were generally based on the wisdom 

 of the Creator and the benefit of man as the cause of all that exists and takes 

 place — that is to say, an explanation without the slightest trace of scien- 

 tific treatment. Darwin's theory, then, was at any rate an immense advance; 

 its weaknesses could be overcome by continued research, its vagueness and 

 casualness removed by fresh discoveries and replaced by firmly established 

 facts, while the finality in nature could thus be made synonymous with 

 natural law. Briefly, no one was prepared to doubt the possibilities of the 

 theory's future development, and for the moment it entailed a freedom from 

 the pressure of prejudice which there had previously seemed to be no means 

 of avoiding. 



Defiance of the conservatives 

 While, then, liberal tendencies felt themselves closely bound up in Dar- 

 winism, the new movement was for that very reason all the more repugnant 

 to the conservative social elements. Those who looked for their ideal in 

 the past and in tradition must have been appalled to see the good old times 

 depicted as a kind of half-way station along the road from the ape stage; 

 and that free competition which to their mind only led to all manner of li- 

 cence, was that to be the true creator of the life that is lived today, instead 

 of the divine reason which has governed the world and preserved law and 

 justice? And, again, this vague, indeterminate idea of evolution, was it to 

 be substituted for those firmly established and eternal ideas that governed 

 the creation of nature and its forms? Thus reasoned many, and Darwin's 

 theory was therefore challenged from pulpit and professorial chair, at sci- 

 entific gatherings, in journals and newspapers. This first polemic against 

 Darwinism has its own peculiar interest; it is dazed and not particularly 

 keen-sighted, it clings despairingly to the old ideas and as yet lacks orienta- 

 tion as to the exact position adopted by its opponents. In the present history 

 it is only possible to give attention to some few of the more representative 

 scientific contributions, whereas the miscellaneous mass of protests from 

 other quarters can have no place here. 



Owen s opposition 

 The highest scientific reputation among the opponents of Darwin was un- 

 doubtedly that of Richard Owen. It was, of course, impossible for the lat- 

 ter's idealistic morphology to be reconciled with the Darwinian doctrines 

 of descent, and if anyone was to discover and demonstrate the weaknesses 



