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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Virchow is, that he don't understand or ap- 

 preciate it. In regard to the anthropologi- 

 cal objection, Professor Huxley declares in 

 his preface that Virchow is entirely in the 

 wrong. Authority is here opposed to au- 

 thority; and Huxley asserts that all we 

 know concerning the most ancient men har- 

 monizes with the view that they have origi- 

 nated under the general law of evolution. 



In regard to Virchow's attempt to bring 

 evolution into reproach by associating it 

 with communism. Professor Huxley says : 

 " I think I shall have all fair-minded men 

 ■with me, when I also give vent to my repro- 

 bation of the introduction of the sinister 

 arts of unscrupulous political warfare into 

 scientific controversy, manifested in the at- 

 tempt to connect the doctrines he (Haeckel) 

 advocates with those of a political party 

 which is at present the object of hatred and 

 persecution in his native land." 



Professor Haeckel in dealing with this 

 charge says that "those two theories are 

 about as compatible as fire and water," and 

 remarks upon the subject as follows : " With 

 all these empty accusations, as with all the 

 empty reproaches and groundless objections 

 ■which Virchow brings against the doctrine 

 of evolution, he takes good care in no way 

 to touch the kernel of the matter. How, in- 

 deed, would it have been possible, without 

 arriving at conclusions wholly opposed to 

 those which he has declared ? For the the- 

 ory of descent proclaims, more clearly than 

 any other scientific theory, that the equality 

 of individuals which socialism strives after 

 is an impossibility ; that it stands in fact in 

 irreconcilable contradiction to the inevitable 

 inequality of individuals which actually and 

 everywhere subsists. Socialism demands 

 equal rights, equal duties, equal possessions, 

 equal enjoyments for every citizen alike; 

 the theory of descent proves, in exact op- 

 position to this, that the realization of this 

 demand is a pure impossibility, and that in 

 the constitutionally organized communities 

 of men, as of the lower animals, neither 

 rights nor duties, neither possessions nor 

 enjoyments, have ever been equal for all the 

 members alike, nor can ever be. Through- 

 out the evolutionist theory, as in its biologi- 

 cal branch, the theory of descent — the great 

 law of specialization or differentiation — 

 teaches us that a multiplicity of phenomena 



is developed from original unity, heterogene- 

 ity from original similarity, and the compos- 

 ite organism from original simplicity. The 

 conditions of existence are dissimilar for 

 each individual from the beginning of its 

 existence ; even the inherited qualities, the 

 natural " disposition," are more or less un- 

 like ; how then can the problems of hfe and 

 their solution be alike for all ? The more 

 highly political life la organized, the more 

 prominent is the great principle of the 

 division of labor, and the more requisite it 

 becomes, for the lasting security of the whole 

 state, that its members should be variously 

 distributed in the manifold tasks of life ; 

 and as the work to be performed by diflFer- 

 ent individuals is of the most various kind, 

 as well as the corresponding outlay of 

 strength, skill, property, etc., the reward of 

 the work must naturally be also extremely 

 various. These are such simple and tangi- 

 ble facts that one would suppose that ev- 

 ery reasonable and unprejudiced politician 

 would recommend the theory of descent and 

 the evolution hypothesis in general as the 

 best antidote to the fathomless absurdity of 

 extravagant social leveling. 



"Darwinism, I say, is anything rather 

 than socialist ! If this English hypothesis is 

 to be compared to any definite political ten- 

 dency — as is, no doubt, possible — that ten- 

 dency can only be aristocratic, certainly not 

 democratic, and least of all socialist. The 

 theory of evolution teaches that in human 

 life, as in animal and plant life everywhere 

 and at all times, only a small and chosen 

 minority can exist and flourish, while the 

 enormous majority starve and perish miser- 

 ably, and more or less prematurely. The 

 germs of every species of animal and plant, 

 and the young individuals that spring from 

 them, are innumerable, while the number 

 of those fortunate individuals Avhich develop 

 to maturity and actually reach their hardly- 

 won life-goal is out of all proportion tri- 

 fling. The cruel and merciless struggle for 

 existence which rages throughout all living 

 nature, and in the course of nature must 

 rage, this unceasing and inexorable compe- 

 tition of all living creatures, is an incontes- 

 table fact ; only the picked minority of the 

 qualified ' fittest ' is in a position to resist 

 it successfully, while the great majority of 

 the competitors must necessarily perish mis- 



