86 PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC REALISM n 



were agreed that a "species" was something 

 which existed objectively, somehow or other, and 

 had been created by a Divine fiat. As to the 

 objective reality of genera, there was a good deal 

 of difference of opinion. On the other hand, 

 there were a few who could see no objective reality 

 in anything but individuals, and looked upon both 

 species and genera as hypostatised universals. As 

 for myself, I seem to have unconsciously emulated 

 William of Occam, inasmuch as almost the first 

 public discourse I ever ventured upon, dealt with 

 " Animal Individuality," and its tendency was to 

 fight the Nominalist battle even in that quarter. 



Realism appeared in still stranger forms at the 

 time to which I refer. The community of plan 

 which is observable in each great group of animals 

 was hypostatised into a Platonic idea with the 

 appropriate name of " archetype," and we were 

 told, as a disciple of Philo-Judaeus might have 

 told us, that this realistic figment was " the 

 archetypal light" by which Nature has been 

 guided amidst the " wreck of worlds." So, again, 

 another naturalist, who had no less earned a well- 

 deserved reputation by his contributions to positive 

 knowledge, put forward a theory of the production 

 of living things which, as nearly as the increase 

 of knowledge allowed, was a reproduction of the 

 doctrine inculcated by the Jewish Cabbala. 



Annexing the archetype notion, and carrying it 

 to its full logical consequence, the author of this 



