350 



FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 



sistent with a rational knowledge of Nature." "Such 

 rational hypotheses," he says, " are scientific articles of 

 faith." It is not clear, however, that so large a name as 

 faith need be taken for working hypotheses confessed- 

 ly uncertain or transient. The words " make-believe," 

 used by Huxley in some such connection, might well be 

 applied to hypothetical " articles of faith " which have no 

 basis in scientific induction. But it seems to me that 

 it is not necessary for the man of science to say " I be- 

 lieve " in addition to "I know." He should not " be- 

 lieve " where he can not trust. He should put off the 

 livery of science when he enters the service of the Del- 

 phian oracles. 



That all the doctrines above mentioned are neces- 

 sarily included in monism, may perhaps be doubted. 

 Monism would probably still flourish were all these 

 theories disproved; for human philosophies have won- 

 derful recuperative power. Their basis is in the struc- 

 ture of the brain itself, and external phenomena are 

 only accessory to them. 



If monism is a purely philosophic conception, it can 

 have no necessary axioms or corollaries, except such as 

 are involved in its definition. These could not be scien- 

 tific in their character, because they could in no way 

 come into relation with the realities of human life. If, 

 however, monism be a generalization, resting in part on 

 human experience, then it must be tested by the meth- 

 ods of science. Until it is so tested, however plausible 

 it may seem, it has no working value. There is no gain 

 in giving it belief or in calling it truth. 

 The inheritance g^jjj j^^^ should we Stultify ourselves by 



of acquired . . , ., ... ^ ^ ^ ^ 



^ pinnmg our faith to its postulates as to 



characters. r o r 



matters yet to be decided by experiment 

 and to be settled by human experiment only. Haeckel 

 says, for example : " The inheritance of characters ac- 



