152 Contemporary Evolution. 



porated with it. Philosophy affords, then, the real battle- 

 ground for the contending forces, and it is on that all- 

 important field that the future of Europe, the endurance 

 of an existing social system, and the fate of Christianity 

 must be decided. 



But we may ask, Has not the advance of science itself 

 an indirect effect upon the struggle ? Does this advance 

 tend to hinder or promote the study of philosophy ? If 

 it does do either, then, of course, it indirectly aids in the 

 conflict, though itself inoperative directly. Now every 

 physical science is, when once its study has been fairly 

 begun, intensely interesting. Most popular sciences, such 

 as zoology, botany, geology, etc., are followed with com- 

 parative facility, and are, to most minds, far easier than 

 philosophical study, where the intellect has so constantly 

 to be turned in upon itself. Yet from the limitations 

 imposed by their very nature on the physical sciences, 

 they tend to leave the minds of the more inquiring (and 

 as education becomes diffused, of a greater number) 

 with an unsatisfied craving after deeper explanations 

 in fact, with a desire for consistent philosophical concep- 

 tions to serve as a support for the laws and phenomena, 

 and to embrace in one whole all that such sciences make 

 known. Yet within the last century there has been an 

 increasing inclination to direct minds more and more 

 exclusively to phenomena, and philosophy (especially in 

 this country) has been more and more discredited and 



