THE EVOLUTION OF LIVING BEINGS. 141 



science, has however to expose his own errors in the 

 first place. 



Adhering to ideas venerable by age, irrespective 

 of the possibility of proof, is the prerogative of reli- 

 gious creeds ; science ruthlessly destroys what it no lon- 

 ger recognizes as well established. 



There is something very dear to the human heart 

 in sticking to venerable traditions; it is even questio- 

 nable whether the upholding of illusions is not bet- 

 ter worth our while than the restless pursuit of the 

 truth, which forces us to destroy to day, what we built 

 up yesterday, but this is a philosophical question 

 which does not concern us here, science demands the 

 total eradication of convictions as soon as these are 

 recognised to be ill-founded. 



Happily we but rarely err completely, and though 

 Phylogeny is untraceable and consequently, as said 

 above, a product of phantastic speculations, yet the 

 basic truth of it remains unimpaired, which is so well 

 expressed by Darwin in the conslusions to his origin : 



„As all the living forms of life are the lineal descen- 

 dants of those which lived long before the Cambrian 

 „epoch, we may feel certain that the ordinary succession 

 n by generation has never once been broken." 



In this sense Phylogeny is a fact ; it are our recon- 

 structions of the way in which it proceeds (which we 

 use to call Phylogeny) only, which are phantastic. 



The recognition of this is, to my mind, a fact added 

 to our stock of knowledge, be it, in a sense, a negative 

 one. 



IS 



