IV. 



DR. BUCHNER ON DARWINISM. 1 



THE words " materialist " and " atheist " have 

 been so long employed as death-dealing epithets 

 in the hands of hard-hitting theological controver- 

 sialists that it seems hardly kind in us to begin 

 the notice of a somewhat meritorious book by 

 saying that it is the work of a materialist and an 

 atheist. We are reassured, however, by the re- 

 flection that these are just the titles which the 

 author himself delights in claiming. Dr. Biich- 

 ner would regard it as a slur upon his mental fit- 

 ness for philosophizing if we were to refuse him 

 the title of atheist ; and " materialism " is the 

 name of that which is as dear to him as " liberty " 

 was dear to the followers of Danton and Mirabeau. 

 Accordingly, in applying these terms to Dr. Biich- 

 ner, they become divested of their old opprobri- 

 ousness, and are enabled to discharge the proper 



1 Man in the Past, Present, and Future. A Popular Account of 

 the Results of Recent Scientific Research as regards the Origin, Posi- 

 tion, and Prospects of the Human Race. From the German of Dr. L. 

 Buchner. by W. S. Dallas, F. L. S. London, 1872. 



