EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



Very likely there will always be people who are 

 colour-blind, and people without an ear for 

 music. So, doubtless, there will always be a 

 class of excellent people with a fair capacity 

 for understanding scientific generalizations, but 

 without any head for philosophy ; and this class 

 will produce the Biichners and La Mettries of 

 the future, as it has produced them in the past 

 and present. Thus, one part of my question is 

 disposed of. The philosophy of the future will 

 not be materialistic, and there is nothing in the 

 dominant philosophy of to-day to indicate that 

 religious problems will not continue to be made 

 'the subjects of speculation. I recollect once ask- 

 ing Mr. Spencer's opinion on some question of 

 pure ontology. He replied that he had no 

 opinion ; not because his mind was necessarily 

 hostile to entertaining such questions, but simply 

 because he was so entirely occupied in working 

 out the theory of evolution, in its innumerable 

 applications to the world of phenomena, that he 

 had not time and strength left to expend on 

 problems that are confessedly insoluble. This 

 was the answer of a true man of science ; and 

 it is worth repeating for the benefit of those 

 silly people who think it is not enough that 

 Mr. Spencer should have made greater addi- 

 tions to the sum of human knowledge than 

 have ever been made by any other man since 

 the beginning of the world, and complain of 



