DISCUSSION 197 



interference on the part of a personal God in the 

 course of events in the world ; but Father Wasmann 

 declares this interference to be necessary only on 

 two or three occasions, and possibly only on one, 

 viz. when the original miracle of creation was wrought. 

 As a matter of principle it was unimportant whether 

 we admitted a miracle a violation of the laws of 

 nature to have taken place once or many times ; 

 a true scientist could not regard such a violation 

 of law as being ever possible. But after Father 

 Wasmann had abandoned this theistic theory of 

 the incessant interference on the part of God in the 

 course of events in the world, he had arrived at 

 another theory, which might be called deistic, ac- 

 cording to which the divine Being constructed the 

 machinery of the universe, gave it its laws, set it 

 in motion, and then let it work without further 

 interference. This deistic conception bordered on 

 pantheism, and therefore, in the speaker's opinion, 

 Father Wasmann needed but to take one short step 

 further and he would arrive at pantheism, which 

 every one knew to be HaeckePs view. 



These philosophical statements regarding 

 theism, etc., seem to be derived from Haeckel's 

 Weltratsel, Parts m. and iv. Any text- 

 book of the Christian theodicy would have 

 made it clear to Dr. Schmidt-Jena that 

 theism does not assume any arbitrary inter- 

 ference on God^s part in the course of events in 



