62 THE GENETIC AND 



Vircbow's politics as a pedagogue reach their 

 highest pitch in this demand : " that in all schools, 

 from the poor schools to the universities, nothing shall 

 be taught that is not absolutely certain. None but 

 objective and absolutely ascertained knowledge is to be 

 imparted by the teacher to the learner; nothing sub- 

 jective, no knowledge that is open to correction, only 

 facts, no hypotheses." The investigation of such 

 problems as the whole nation may be interested in 

 must not be restricted ; that is liberty of inquiry ; 

 but the problem ought not, without anything 

 farther, to be the subject of teaching. "When we 

 teach we must restrict ourselves to the smaller, and 

 yet how great, departments which we are actually 

 masters of." 



Rarely indeed has such a treasonable attempt on 

 liberty of doctrine been made by a prominent repre- 

 sentative of science, and a leader of the intellectual 

 movement too, as this by Virchow. Only inquiry 

 is to be free and not teaching ! And where in the 

 whole history of science is there one single scientific 

 inquirer to be found who would not have felt himself 

 quite justified in teaching his own subjective convic- 

 tions with as much right as he had to construct them 

 from inquiry into objective facts. And where, gene- 

 rally speaking, is the limit to be found between objec- 



