28 Scientific Sophisms. 



most part settled down in the belief that Mr. 

 Darwin's book simply reflects the truth of 

 Nature : that we who are now ' foremost in the 

 files of time' have come to the front through 

 almost endless stages of promotion from lower 

 to higher forms of life." l 



"The most part": but what of the rest, the 

 remaining part ? Let it stand in awe. If it 

 cannot be convinced it can be denounced. And 

 it is denounced accordingly. It is more base 

 and stupid than " even the clerical world." 

 He who belongs to it is ipso facto stigmatized 

 as ignorant and incompetent. 2 He is " unstable 

 and weak," s " a brawler and a clown." * 



1 Prof. Tyndall : " Science and Man," in The Fort- 

 nightly Review, vol. xxii. New series, p. 611. 



' The great and venerated name of Von Baer is asso- 

 ciated by Haeckel with the idea of "harmless senile 

 garrulity." Adolf Bastian is a " Privy Councillor of 

 Confusion"; Du Bois-Raymond is a " rhetorical phrase- 

 spinner," if not a Professor of Voluntary Ignorance ; 

 while Carl Semper is a a person regardless of truth, 

 expressed in a brief word not usually heard among 

 gentlemen. "Haeckel," says Dr. Elam, "has probably 

 never heard of the insignificant names of Owen, Mivart, 

 and Agassiz, or they would doubtless have been remem- 

 bered in the catalogue of wretched smatterers who have 

 come under his signal disapproval." 



3 Prof. Tyndall's "Address delivered at Belfast." 

 Longmans, 1874, p. 63. 



4 Fortnightly Review, voL xxii. p. 614. 



