MODERN BIOLOGY 447 



for the greatest possible number of people, a happiness that would infallibly 

 be attained through the activities of the individual being as little as possible 

 restricted by the various organs of the community. Here, then, we find the 

 same belief in evolution as in Comte, although in a more practical form. The 

 foremost supporter of these ideas, however, is John Stuart Mill (1806-73), 

 son of the above-mentioned James Mill. He was taught by his father and 

 never studied at a university, but as a young man entered the Civil Service. 

 For a time he was a friend of Comte and was influenced by him. Among his 

 works should be first mentioned his System of Logic, an analysis of the laws of 

 thought, which had a great influence on the generation that felt the first 

 effects of Darwin's theory; Haeckel especially cites its doctrines frequently. 

 Mill derives all knowledge from experience, and this in its turn from sense- 

 impressions; of special interest is his analysis of the different ideas of the 

 natural-scientific systems, particularly the idea of species ; he considers a well- 

 defined species to be a reality, not merely a conventional term, but, on the 

 other hand, he maintains that the species should be based on characters and 

 not on any imaginary ideal type. The closer study of these extremely detailed 

 analyses of ideas is, however, more a concern of philosophy than of the his- 

 tory of biology. For the rest. Mill was active both in theory and in practice 

 as a liberal social politician and as such possessed a wide influence. 



Dotvnfall of romanticism in Germany 

 The advent of the realistic conception of life took an entirely different turn 

 in Germany. It will have been seen from the foregoing how education in 

 that country had for half a century been entirely dominated by the romantic 

 philosophy, with the result that even natural science came to a great extent 

 under the influence of its modes of thought. The Schellingian polarity-theory 

 certainly had very soon to give ground, but in the world of speculation the 

 Hegelian philosophy, with its dialectical method and its contempt for all 

 empirical research, prevailed all the longer. But after the death of the master 

 the school was divided against itself, and many of its members developed 

 their doctrines along distinctly radical lines, as, for instance, Karl Marx, 

 the famous founder of socialism, and Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-72.), whose 

 views closely approached the positivism of Comte and who was otherwise 

 a thinker mostly engaged in problems of religious philosophy, and also 

 D. F. Strauss, the well-known Bible-commentator. Other philosophers re- 

 mained on the old ground, while still a number, including some of the most 

 keen-sighted, returned to Kant's critical studies. Whereas, then, the roman- 

 tic philosophy was being internally disrupted, the natural sciences made the 

 splendid advance that has been described in the foregoing. It is no wonder, 

 therefore, that natural-science students took courage; the results of philoso- 

 phy had resolved themselves into vain squabbles; why not, then, let scientific 

 research be self-sufficient and solve the riddle of existence on its own account? 



