CHAP, xvm A "FAIRY TALE OF SCIENCE"? 241 



to the High Church doctrine of apostolical succession. 

 Age after age the Church is made or created by the 

 hierarchy, but the hierarchy is never made by the 

 Church ; it is made by the antecedent hierarchy. 

 There is no reciprocity, there is no fet/ow-sh'ip, but 

 aristocratic superiority on the one side, and absolute 

 dependence on the other. If the hierarchy perishes, 

 or is interrupted, everything is lost. A strange be- 

 lief surely ! Yet who knows ? If certain views are 

 biologically correct, the High Church school of Chris- 

 tians may claim to be more scientific than any others. 

 But are these views proved, or even permissible ? 



In their full (and guasi-High Church) severity, 

 these views are to be found only in Weismann's ear- 

 lier writings, wherejie develops his more character- 

 istic positions. " Stirp " always differed from " Germ 

 plasm " ; for Galton always admitted a certain modi- 

 fied action of " use-inheritance " or " the Lamarckian 

 factor." And, along with other changes registered 

 by Romanes in 1893, Weismann had by that time 

 withdrawn his former doctrine of the " absolute sta- 

 bility " so Romanes puts it " of the germ plasm," 

 and had come over to Galton's view, according to 

 which the influence of environment in originating 

 variations, and so contributing directly to evolution- 

 ary progress, while slight, is yet not to be denied. 

 However, the earlier form of Weismann's views must 

 be regarded as the more coherent and original. It is 

 almost as interesting as a fairy tale, if possibly not 

 much truer. To an outside critic, at any rate, Weis- 

 mannism seems to have grown latterly after the man- 

 ner of a false hypothesis, not after the manner of 

 truth. It has modified itself endlessly by adding on 



