82 THE GENETIC AND 



as a basis of geology and phylogenesis these or any 

 other dogma, at pleasure, from any other church will 

 make all other doctrine quite superfluous. Virchow, 

 " that critical spirit," knows as well as I, and as every 

 other naturalist, that these dogmas are not true, and 

 nevertheless, in his opinion, they are not to be sup- 

 planted as the " basis of instruction " by those theories 

 and hypotheses of modern natural science of which 

 Virchow himself says that they may be true, that in 

 a great measure they probably are true, but are not 

 yet " quite certainly proved." 



At pages 15, 24, 26, 28, and elsewhere in his 

 Munich address, Virchow strongly insists that only 

 that objective knowledge may be taught which we 

 possess as absolutely certain fact ! and then at page 

 29 he requires us to conclude that the basis of instruc- 

 tion shall continue to be the purely subjective dogmas 

 of the Church ; revelations and dogmas which not only 

 are not proved by any facts whatever, but on the con- 

 trary, stand in the most trenchant contradiction to the 

 most obvious facts of natural experience and fly in the 

 face of all human reason. These contradictions, to be 

 sure, are no greater than some others which stand out 

 conspicuous and incomprehensible in Virchow's dis- 

 course. Thus at the beginning of his address he 

 glorifies Lorenz Oken and deeply laments "that he, 

 that highly- valued and honoured master, that ornament 



