252 THE PROBLEM OF EVOLUTION 



governing it are uncreated and everlasting. ' I 

 think,' says Dr. Senff, 'that considerable obscurity 

 exists here, and that Plate's rationalistic views 

 on natural science may be very attractive to a 

 modern audience, that desires to be entertained, 

 but they will prove on more exact analysis to be 

 unsound and incoherent.' ' Professor Plate is a 

 believer this he has frankly acknowledged in spite 

 of all his science but it is difficult to see why he 

 stops half-way ; it would be more consistent if he 

 went a step further. Let us have either all or 

 nothing ! This obvious tendency to stop half-way 

 is nothing but the outcome of superficial thought, 

 of modern prejudice with regard to natural science, 

 and of inadequate acquaintance with the require- 

 ments of logic, philosophy, and metaphysics. It is 

 the patching up of a personal opinion after the 

 fashion of modern thinkers. In this instance, too, 

 we feel that our great philosophers have once more 

 lived in vain.' 



Dr. Senff next passes on to Plate's tirade against 

 the creation of living creatures. He first examines the 

 reasons for assuming the existence of a living 

 principle, and arrives at this conclusion : ' We 

 cannot avoid the recognition of some wonderful 

 and inexplicable formal principle of a transcendental 

 and metaphysical nature.' ' The reproach of being 

 prejudiced ought not to be brought against those 

 who like Father Wasmann acknowledge the 

 recognition of a formal principle to be inevitable, 



