GROWTH OF IDEAS 285 



guardian of his tabooed province. This time 

 Darwinism is supposed to be threatening the virgin 

 field in which we exact scientists make our peace 

 with the State. At the right moment he adroitly 

 points out that the Social Democrats have taken to 

 Darwinism. Every man on deck, then. That 

 must not go any further. At the bottom it was 

 the old contest. If one lays down as a general 

 principle that the scientific pursuit and present- 

 ment of truth has to respect neutral provinces and 

 make concessions, every change in current affairs 

 will demand a fresh application of it. To-day it is 

 some Church or other, to-morrow a State, the next 

 day the momentary code of morals, and lastly 

 some bumbledom or other that renews the pro- 

 hibition to dissect corpses, because our dissecting 

 knives disturb the peace of mind of our Philistine 

 neighbours. Haeckel published a sharp reply to 

 Virchow (Free Science and Free Teaching^ 1878), 

 in which he sought to show amongst other things, 

 taking his stand on his political principles, that 

 Socialism and Darwinism have nothing to do with 

 each other. 



I will not go more fully into the controversy 

 here. If one province of knowledge is to receive 

 light from another at all, we must admit that 

 there is only one general truth. All stationary 

 or reactionary political interest is irreconcilable 

 with the theory of evolution. That is clear from 

 the very meaning of the words. As to the direction 

 in which we must seek real political and social 

 progress opinions are bound to differ very con- 



