654 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



this end is welcomed, whether it b atheism or papal in- 

 fallibility. For long years the socialists saw church and 

 state united against them, and both were therefore 

 regarded with a common hatred. But no sooner does a 

 serious difference arise between church and state, than a 

 portion of the socialists begin immediately to dally with 

 the former.* The experience of the last German elections 

 illustrates Lange's position. Far nobler and truer to my 

 mind than this fear of promoting socialism by a scientific 

 theory which the best and soberest heads in the world have 

 substantially accepted, is the position assumed by Helm- 

 holtz, who in his " Popular Lectures" describes Darwin's 

 theory as embracing " an essentially new creative thought " 

 (einen weseutlich neuen schopferischen Gedanken), and 

 who illustrates the greatness of this thought by copious 

 references to the solutions, previously undreamed of, which 

 it offers of the enigmas of life and organization. He points 

 to the clouds of error and confusion which it has already 

 dispersed, and shows how the progress of discovery since 

 its first enunciation is simply a record of the approach of 

 the theory toward complete demonstration. One point in 

 this " popular" exposition deserves especial mention here. 

 Helm holtz refers to the dominant position acquired by 

 Germany in physiology and medicine, while other nations 

 have kept abreast of her in the investigation of inorganic 

 nature. He claims for German men the credit of pursuing 

 with unflagging and self-denying industry, with purely 

 ideal aims, and without any immediate prospect of practical 

 utility, the cultivation of pure science. But that which 

 has determined German superiority in the fields referred 

 to was, in his opinion, something different from this. 

 Inquiries into the nature of life are intimately connected 

 with psychological and ethical questions; and he claims 

 for his countrymen a greater fearlessness of the conse- 

 quences which a full knowledge of the truth may here 

 carry along with it, than reigns among the inquirers of 

 other nations. And why is this the case? "England and 

 France/' he says, "possess distinguished investigators 

 men competent to follow up and illustrate with vigorous 

 energy the methods of natural science; but they have 

 hitherto been compelled to bend before social and theolog- 



* " (ieschiciite des Materialisnms," 2e Auflage, vol. ii., p. 538. 



