PROFESSOR VIRCHOW AND EVOLUTION 423 



proof tliat life can be developed, save from demonstrable 

 antecedent life." * 



Comparing the theory of evolution with other theories, 

 I thus express myself; *'The basis of the doctrine of evo- 

 lution consists, not in an experimental demonstration — for 

 the subject is hardly accessible to this mode of proof — but 

 in its general harmony with scientific thought. From con- 

 trast, moreover, it derives enormous relative strength. On 

 the one side we have a theory, which converts the Power 

 whose garment is seen in the visible universe into an Ar- 

 tificer, fashioned after the human model, and acting by 

 broken efforts, as man is seen to act. On the other side 

 we have the conception that all we see around us and feel 

 within us — the phenomena of physical nature as well as 

 those of the human mind — have their unsearchable roots 

 in a cosmical life, if I dare apply the term, an infinitesi- 

 mal span of which is offered to the investigation of man. " 

 Among thinking people, in my opinion, this last concep- 

 tion has a higher ethical value than that of a personal ar- 

 tificer. Be that as it may, I make here no claim for the 

 theory of evolution which can reasonably be refused. 



**Ten years have elapsed,'' said Dr. Hooker at Nor- 

 wich in 1868,' "since the publication of 'The Origin of 

 Species by Natural Selection,' and it is therefore not too 

 early now to ask what progress that old theory has made 

 in scientific estimation. Since the 'Origin' appeared it has 

 passed through four English editions,^ two American, two 

 German, two French, several Russian, a Dutch, and an 



* Quoted by Clifford, "Nineteentli Century," 3, p. 726. 



' President's Address to the British Association. 



3 Published by Mr. John Murray, the English publisher of Virchow's Lect* 



ure. Bane and antidote are thus impartially distributed by the same hand. 



