352 



FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 



least equally well equipped to pass judgment on such 

 speculations as their advocates." 



In other words, if any of these systems of philosophy 

 are to descend from cloudland to be wrought into hu- 

 man action, they must enter the domain of science and 

 submit themselves to scientific tests. 



Again, if we are to allow the revision of the generali- 

 zations of science by the addition of acceptable but un- 

 verified doctrines, we must allow the 

 right of similar revision by rejection. 

 S hHosoph Mr - Wallace > for example, would be 



justified in adding to the certainties of 

 organic evolution his idea of the special creation of the 

 mind of man while the body was separately developed 

 under natural law. The old notion of the separate ex- 

 istence of the ego, which plays on the nerve cells of the 

 brain as a musician on the keys of a piano, would still 

 linger in psychology. The astral body would hover on 

 the verge of physiology, and a strong plea would go up 

 for the reality of Santa Glaus. 



I have a scientific friend who finds it necessary to 

 exclude by force from his biological beliefs all that is 

 unpleasant in the theories of evolution. And he has the 

 same right to do this that Professor Haeckel has to insist 

 that any scientific beliefs, for which science has yet no 

 warrant, are a necessary part of the orthodoxy of science. 



For Haeckel is not content to speak for himself, 

 asking tolerance by tolerance toward others. His be- 

 lief is no idiosyncrasy of his own. He speaks for all. 

 Every honest, intelligent, courageous scientific man, he 

 tells us, so far as he is truthful, competent, and brave, 

 shares the same belief. His confession of faith is 

 nothing if not orthodox. He says : 



"This monistic confession has the greater claim to 

 an unprejudiced consideration in that it is shared, I am 



