CHAPTEE VI. 



THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT AND SOCIAL DEMOCRACY. 



EVERY great and comprehensive theory which affects 

 the foundations of human science, and which, conse- 

 quently, influences the systems of philosophy, will, in 

 the first place, not only further our theoretical views of 

 the universe, but will also react on practical philosophy ; 

 ethics, and the correlated provinces of religion and 

 politics. In my paper read at Munich I only briefly 

 pointed out the happy results which, in my opinion, 

 the modern doctrine of evolution will entail when the 

 true, natural religion, founded on reason, takes the place 

 of the dogmatic religion of the Church, and its leading 

 principle derives the human sense of duty from the 

 social instincts of animals. 



The references to the social instincts which I, in 

 common with Darwin and many others, regard as the 

 proper source and origin of all moral development, 

 appear to have afforded Virchow an opportunity in his 

 reply for designating the doctrine of inheritance as a 

 " socialist theory," and for attributing to it the most 



