Dr. Biichner on Darwinism. 53 



l\icid exposition of the speculations and discover- 

 ies of other students of nature. When we have 

 described it as in the main lucid and accurate, we 

 have given it all the praise which as a scientific 

 exposition it can legitimately claim to have earned. 

 When we consider it as a contribution to philoso- 

 phy, when we ask the question whether it can be 

 of any use to us in solving the great problem of 

 our relations to the universe in which we live and 

 move and have our being, we must set down quite 

 another verdict. As an exposition of Darwinism, 

 the work, though by no means all that could be 

 desired, is still an admirable work. But as a vin- 

 dication of the atheistic and materialistic way of 

 explaining the universe, it is an utter failure. To 

 suppose that the establishment of the Darwinian 

 theory of man's origin is equivalent to the vin- 

 dication of materialism and atheism is a mistake 

 of Dr. Biichner's which would be very absurd 

 were it not so very serious. Mr. Darwin's theory 

 only supposes that a certain aggregate of phe- 

 nomena now existing has had for its antecedent a 

 certain other and different aggregate of phenom- 

 ena. The entire victory of this theory will only 

 like the previous victory of Newton's theory 

 over the doctrine of guiding angels, espoused even 

 by Kepler assure us that in the entire series of 



