EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



love of truth; by which is meant a dominating 

 affection, so that to have learned the real facts in 

 the course of an argument affords far more satis- 

 faction than to have proved your opponent wrong, 

 and so that it causes a grief of soul to see the thing 

 that is not, offered in the guise of the thing that is, 

 even to a school-boy at the antipodes or a savage 

 in Fiji. 



It can be shown, I think, that this belief in the 

 wide-spread prevalence of a love of truth is by no 

 means confined to the protagonists on one side in 

 the conflict between science and dogmatic theology. 

 Let me quote, for instance, from a French educa- 

 tionist, M. Laisant, who is referring to the teaching 

 of religion and ethics in schools: 



" L'e"ducateur habile, en stimulant dans 1'esprit de son 

 eleve le culte de la verite, en tirant parti tous les exemples, 

 de toutes les observations, de 1'experience quotidienne, 

 arrivera sans peine a faconner graduellement cette con- 

 science d'enfant pour en faire une conscience humaine." 



Now it appears to me that this sentence implicit- 

 ly contains a very questionable assumption. The 

 author appears to regard the philosophic temper 

 as a natural appanage of a school - master. His 

 pupils are constantly to see this passion exalted 

 above all others, and are thereby to obtain a firm 

 foundation in ethics. I believe, on the other hand, 

 that it would be a terrible disaster if the formal 

 and explicit teaching of morality were to cease 

 from within our schools. I do not for a moment 



