30 Scientific Sophisms. 



They make their boast of truth. They pro- 

 claim aloud their contempt of consequences. 

 The boast would have been more becoming if 

 it had been less exclusive. Those who make 

 it will have a better claim to be heard when 

 they have learned, with the modesty of science, 

 to moderate the pretensions by which they 

 arrogate to themselves a monopoly of the virtue 

 which they say is theirs. When they tell us 

 that " Mr. Charles Darwin, the Abraham of 

 scientific men," is " a scholar as obedient to the 

 command of truth as was the patriarch to the 

 command of God," l we are under no necessity, 

 as we certainly have no inclination, to dispute 

 the accuracy of the assertion. But when to this 

 it is added that to reject Mr. Darwin's hypo- 

 thesis, and those of his coadjutors and com- 

 mentators, is " to purchase intellectual peace at 

 the price of intellectual death," 3 we ask for 

 the evidence in support of this assertion. That 

 evidence has yet to be produced. Is it pro- 

 ducible ? It is at all events not forthcoming. 

 Until the truth of these hypotheses has been 

 established it is not possible, in the name of 

 truth, to demand our acceptance of them. And 

 until then, as always, our position in relation to 



1 Fortnightly Review, vol. xxii. p. 615. 

 1 " The Belfast Address," ut sup., p. 63. 



