176 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



supplies the directivity in the construction of the house, just 

 as the mason and brickmaker do in the manufacture of the 

 materials. 



Hence, by analogy, there must be Mind, somewhere, be- 

 hind the responsive power of protoplasm in making cells, in 

 building up tissues and in the construction of organs and 

 thereby evolving a new variety. 



Now let us turn to Haeckel and see what use he makes of 

 Natural Selection to furnish his Monism with its foundation. 



He has many references to Natural Selection, especially 

 when he treats of man's mental and moral traits. The follow- 

 ing quotations will illustrate what he has to say on this element 

 of Darwinism. 



(i) "No authority can be acknowledged by Rationalism 

 which is not prepared to show that its claims and teachings 

 are consistent with fact and reason." 



(2) " The tyrant who is prepared to ' wade through slaughter 

 to a throne ' becomes an angel of wisdom and love when com- 

 pared with an Almighty designer who plans Evolution of a race 

 of perfect beings from a speck of protoplasm by the tedious, 

 wasteful and agonising process of Natural Selection." 



The two passages here quoted suggest the following re- 

 marks : — 



(i) If Rationalists are prepared to follow this sound piece of 

 advice, it is for them to show that the claims of Darwinism are 

 consistent with fact ; for Haeckel and others base their Ration- 

 alism upon it. 



(2) This is a sample of a common style of writing of 

 Rationalists, when they state that it is impossible to reconcile 

 the slaughter of animals and plants with a beneficient Creator. 

 This will be considered on another occasion later on. 



" Darwin gave us the key to the Monistic explanation." 

 " Mechanism alone can give us a true explanation of natural 

 phenomena, etc." ^ He quotes an observation of Kant's that " It 

 is impossible to explain the origin of a single blade of grass 



1 See supra, p. 25. 



