330 THE EIDDLE OF THE UNIVEESE. 



of the human mind, characterized by the development 

 of the monistic philosophy of nature. At its very 

 commencement the foundations were laid of a new 

 anthropology (by the comparative anatomy of Cuvier) 

 and a new biology (by the Philosophic Zoologique 

 of Lamarck). The two great French scientists were 

 quickly succeeded by two contemporary German 

 scholars — Baer, the founder of the science of evolu- 

 tion, and Johannes Miiller, the founder of comparative 

 morphology and physiology. A pupil of Miiller, 

 Theodor Schwann, created the far-reaching cellular 

 theory in 1838, in conjunction with M. Schleiden. 

 Lyell had already traced the evolution of the earth to 

 natural causes, and thus proved the application to our 

 planet of the mechanical cosmogony which Kant had 

 sketched with so much insight in 1755. Finally, 

 Robert Mayer and Helmholtz established the principle 

 of energy in 1842 — the second, complementary half of 

 the great law of substance, the first half of which (the 

 persistence of matter) had been previously discovered 

 by Lavoisier. Forty years ago Charles Darwin crowned 

 all these profound revelations of the intimate nature 

 of the universe by his new theory of evolution, the 

 greatest natural-philosophical achievement of our 

 century. 



What is the relation of modern Christianity to this 

 vast and unparalleled progress of science ? In the 

 first place, the deep gulf between its two great 

 branches, conservative Bomanism and progressive 

 Protestantism, has naturally widened. The ultra- 

 montane clergy (and we must associate with them 

 the orthodox " evangelical alliance ") had naturally 

 to offer a strenuous opposition to this rapid advance 

 of the emancipated mind ; they continued unmoved 



