654 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 
this end is welcomed, whether it be atheism or papal in- 
fallibility. For long years the socialists saw church and 
state united against them, and both were therefore 
regarded with a common hatred. But no sooner does a 
serious difference arise between church and state, than a 
portion of the socialists begin immediately to dally with 
the former.* The experience of the last German elections 
illustrates Lange's position. Far nobler and truer to my 
mind than this fear of promoting socialism by a scientific 
theory which the best and soberest heads in the world have 
substantially accepted, is the position assumed by Helm- 
holtz, who in his "Popular Lectures" describes Darwin's 
theory as embracing " an essentially new creative thought " 
(einen wosentlich neuen schopferischen Gedanken), and 
who illustrates the greatness of this thought by copious 
references to the solutions, previously undreamed of, which 
it offers of the enigmas of life and organization. He points 
to the clouds of error and confusion which it has already 
dispersed, and shows how the progress of discovery since 
its first enunciation is simply a record of the approach of 
the theory toward complete demonstration. One point in 
this " popular" exposition deserves especial mention here. 
Helmholtz refers to the dominant position acquired by 
Germany in physiology and medicine, while other nations 
have kept abreast of her in the investigation of inorganic 
nature. He claims for German men the credit of pursuing 
with unflagging and self-denying industry, with purely 
ideal aims, and without any immediate prospect of practical 
utility, the cultivation of pure science. But that which 
has determined German superiority in the fields referred 
to was, in his opinion, something different from this. 
Inquiries into the nature of life are intimately connected 
with psychological and ethical questions; and he claims 
for his countrymen a greater fearlessness of the conse- 
quences which a full knowledge of the truth may here 
carry along with it, than reigns among the inquirers of 
other nations. And why is this the case? "England and 
France," he says, "possess distinguished investigators 
men competent to follow up and illustrate with vigorous 
energy the methods of natural science; but they have 
hitherto been compelled to, bend before social and theolog- 
* " (ieschichte des Materialismus," 2e Auflage, vol. ii., p. 538. 
