CHAPTER V. 

 PHILOSOPHIC EVOLUTION. 



r I ^HE attempt has been made in the last chapter to 

 * trace the effect on Christianity of a further evolution 

 of physical knowledge, and the conclusion arrived at was 

 that such evolution must be itself comparatively un- 

 influential, inasmuch as it could act only indirectly by 

 stimulating the diffusion of philosophical ideas. In the 

 third chapter we saw reason to believe that the results 

 of political evolution would also depend upon the course 

 hereafter taken by philosophy. We have here, then, to 

 consider that supreme question concerning the result of 

 the Renaissance movement, namely, the philosophical 

 direction it is likely to take, with the hope of being able 

 to form a final judgment as to the result of the great 

 conflict between reviving paganism and the Christian 

 Church. 



The prospect that first strikes the eye of one surveying 

 the field of contemporary speculative activity cannot be 

 very encouraging to the lover of Christianity. Strauss, 

 Biichner, Vogt, Haeckel, and Hartmann in Germany at 

 present attract the sympathies of multitudes now co- 

 operating, at least in will, with the attack made by 

 Bismarck at the same time on both freedom and Chris- 



