216 SCIENCE AND THE HUMAN MIND 



extended his field of observation, and helped to create 

 the modern science of ethnology, of which we shall 

 have occasion to speak on a later page. Of Huxley's 

 work in this direction, Professor Virchow, who led 

 the Continental ethnologists, said in 1898 that it was 

 sufficient to secure immortal reverence for his name. 



In attempting to estimate the influence of the 

 establishment of the theory of evolution on philo- 



The Effects sophic thought and on the general opinions 

 of Evolution. o f mankind, we are faced by the diffi- 

 culty that we are still in the period which is under 

 the domination of evolutionary ideas as a new force 

 in the realm of knowledge. We are still testing evolu- 

 tion, natural selection and all the kindred conceptions 

 they have called into being as guides for our footsteps 

 in science, philosophy, sociology and religion. Hither- 

 to, the main concepts have stood the ordeal well, 

 and the modifications which experience has sug- 

 gested have been in matters of detail. But we are 

 still too near the date of the publication of the Origin 

 of Species to see the whole of its consequences in true 

 and just proportion. Nevertheless, certain conclu- 

 sions stand out clearly, and may be stated with some 

 approach to confidence. 



As the history of thought moves on, the mechanical 

 and spiritual theories of the Universe alternate with 

 each other in recurring pulsations which are as neces- 

 sary to a healthy growth of knowledge as the alternate 

 diastole and systole of the heart are to the well-being 

 of the body. With each great advance in scientific 

 knowledge, with each subjection of a new kingdom 

 to the rule of natural law (as the process comes to be 



