244 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



rules of dialectics. Verily, for a specialist afflicted 

 as Haeckel is, and he is but a type of the majority 

 of specialists, it behooves him -to purge 



" With euphrasy and rue 

 The visual nerve, for he hath much to see." 



But is this the sole explanation of the manifold 

 errors into which the German naturalist has lapsed, 

 and will this account for his false declamation against 

 religion, and his vehement denunciation of the Church, 

 and of what she regards as most sacred ? It is to be 

 feared not. There is more than simple antipathy in 

 his case. There is downright hatred. Only on this 

 assumption can we explain the use of the violent and 

 blasphemous language which is of such frequent 

 occurrence in his more popular works. 



As to the reading public, their position is not 

 difficult to understand. They are, as it were, hyp- 

 notized, by what a German writer, Wiegand, aptly 

 designates, " the confused movement of the mind of 

 our age," and are, so far as their ability to think and 

 judge for themselves goes, in a state of chronic cata- 

 lepsy. They mistake assertions for proof, theories 

 for science, and regard a conglomeration of neolo- 

 gisms, which explain nothing, as so much veritable 

 knowledge. 



Verbal Jugglery. 



The secret of Haeckel's prestige and influence 

 with his readers, is not due simply to the extent of 

 his information in his special line of study, nortothe 

 astonishing mass and variety of facts which he dis- 

 cusses and compares, but rather to his manner of 



