138 THE PROBLEM OF EVOLUTION 



Even the question whether a man were really 

 the son of his parents or not, would, according 

 to Friedenthal, belong to the province of 

 concepts, or even to that of ideals. I can 

 scarcely believe that his fellow-citizens would 

 all agree with him in this respect. As far as 

 I am concerned, subjective evidence, which is 

 only a matter of sentiment, would not at all 

 suffice to answer all questions arising about the 

 descent of man. I feel the need of objective 

 evidence possessing at least a high degree of 

 probability. 



As the speaker proceeded, he said that he felt 

 bound to point out how unfairly the scientist 

 Wasmann had treated the morphological law of 

 motion. Friedenthal himself had only followed 

 many other scientific men in claiming no particular 

 place for man among the mammals of the zoological 

 system ; he was content to class man and other 

 apes together in one subdivision of mammalia, 

 but in the newspapers this opinion had been branded 

 as atheism by the Church. He said that he could 

 not imagine any view of God so utterly opposed to 

 scientific research, as that a scientist, who insisted 

 upon the resemblance between man and other apes, 

 should therefore be accused of atheism. Yet such 

 was Father Wasmann s point of view. 



In answer to Dr. Friedenthal I should like 

 to say, that in my third lecture I was careful to 



