DISCUSSION 211 



answer, simply because they do not belong to our 

 subject. They were only attacks upon me, made 

 in a sectarian spirit. 



Professor Plate and some others among my op 

 ponents maintain that I have a twofold character, 

 that I am at once a theologian and a scientist. I 

 am thankful for this twofold nature. The 

 scientist and the theologian have only to practise 

 self-control in one person, and this may be good for 

 them both. (Laughter.) On higher matters the 

 theologian speaks first, but it is an excellent thing 

 for him to have the scientist at his elbow, to give 

 him a little help now and then, and to put him on 

 his guard against false opinions on scientific 

 subjects ; and it is good for the scientist, in his 

 turn, if he has the theologian at hand, for a theo 

 logian is, as a rule, at the same time a fairly good 

 philosopher, and philosophy is absolutely indis 

 pensable to a scientist. While my opponents have 

 been speaking this evening, I have noticed again 

 and again that I had been completely misunder 

 stood on various points ; this misunderstanding 

 might have been averted by a more thorough 

 training in philosophy. By such training, I mean 

 that strictly logical training which forms an important 

 part of our course of studies, but which is often 

 neglected elsewhere. 



The first scientific problem mentioned in 

 Professor Plate s objections concerns the origin of 

 life. In my second lecture I remarked, that this 



