DISCUSSION 115 



Christianity ? If so, he has not set a good 

 example in his own speech. 



Or, lastly, does he mean that mankind is, in 

 course of time, to be so far intellectually devel- 

 oped by means of the natural sciences, that 

 men will thenceforth think only scientifically 

 and lose all craving for transcendental ideals ? 

 If this were the case, science might claim to 

 have triumphantly succeeded in uniting peace- 

 ably into one single, great, and universal church, 

 free from all creeds, not merely Catholicism 

 and Protestantism, but also Judaism and 

 Mahommedanism, Brahminism and Buddhism, 

 Confucianism and Taoism, Monotheism and 

 Polytheism, Deism and Pantheism, Fetishism 

 and Atheism. I fear, however, that this uni- 

 versal religion in its spiritual aspect will prove 

 to be nothing but Atavism, i.e. a relapse into 

 an animal form of religion, although the new 

 German Monistic Association may profess the 

 warmest admiration for it. The idea is, more- 

 ever, not new; it occurs in an extremely old 

 Chinese legend. 1 



Professor Plate ended his half-hour's oration with 

 these words : ' Trepeat what I said before. Father 

 Wasmann has a twofold character. He is at once 

 a scientist and a theologian. He speaks as a 

 scientist when he is discussing his own special 



1 Cf. A. H. Smith, Chinese Characteristics, p. 377. Shanghai, 1890. 



