8 SUPEH-OKGANIC EVOLUTION 



one of the precepts of the same religion, and this 

 without any rebellion of his conscience. 



And in fact this could not be otherwise, as it is 

 a logical consequence of a monstrous social organ- 

 isation. It requires such a strong lesson to show 

 that, if man is capable of sacrificing his life and his 

 conscience to contradictory or immoral principles, 

 what would not the conduct of the same man be 

 were he educated in a morality of pure reason and 

 positive science ? 



Eoutine is to the intelligence what inertia is to 

 the brute body. The victims of this human calamity 

 are countless, and the more so as the majority of 

 noble men whose ideas illuminated the path of 

 truth have been rewarded with martyrdom. 



However, from the time of Copernicus, who 

 combated the geocentric theory (showing that the 

 earth is not the centre of the universe), until 

 Darwin overthrew the anthropocentric theory, 

 routine lost much of its resistance. Copernicus 

 had to wait patiently till the Church let him publish 

 his work, and under the form of a philosophical 

 inquiry. What a humiliation ! At last, after- 

 thirty years, Copernicus saw his work printed, but 

 it was on his deathbed. However, he had the 

 good fortune to escape the pious theologians of 

 his day. 



What that great man must have suffered in 



