The Evolution Hypothesis. 



are constituted not merely to know, but also to 

 imagine and construct ; and though with more or 

 less mistrust of the definite validity of what the 

 understanding and the senses have to offer us, yet 

 mankind will ever hail with joy the man who under- 

 stands how, by the force of his genius, and by em- 

 ploying all the constructive impulses of his era, to 

 create that unity in the world and in our intellectual 

 life, which is denied to our knowledge. This creation 

 will, indeed, be only the expression of the yearning of 

 the age after unity and perfection; yet even this is 

 no small thing, for the maintenance and nourishment 

 of our intellectual life is as important as science 

 itself, although not so lasting as this is : since the 

 investigation of the details of positive knowledge, 

 and of the relations which are the exclusive objects 

 of our knowledge, is absolute, owing to its method,, 

 while the speculative apprehension of the absolute 

 can only claim a relative importance as the expression 

 of the views of an epoch." * 



The yearning of this age after " unity in the world 

 and in our intellectual life" finds expression in evo- 

 lutionism. But evolutionism is not content to rest 

 in " relative importance as the expression of the views 

 of an epoch ; " it advances a claim to absolute import- 

 ance " owing to its method," as being the unification 

 of all truth. It is a characteristic of the intellectual 



* Lange's History of Materialism, Book I. , Chap. HI. 



