52 A Century of Science 



strong. But now, in his fifth thesis, he enters the 

 region of metaphysics, the transcendental region, 

 which science has no competent methods of explor- 

 ing, and commits himself to a dogmatic assertion : 

 5. "The beliefs in an 'immortal soul' and in 

 'a personal God' are therewith" (i. e., with the 

 four preceding statements) " completely ununitable 

 (vollig unvereinbar) ." 



Now, if Professor Haeckel had contented himself 

 with asserting that these two beliefs are not suscep- 

 / tible of scientific demonstration ; if he had simply 

 / said that they are beliefs concerning which a scien- 

 / tific man, in his scientific capacity, ought to refrain 

 / from making assertions, because Science knows no- 

 / thing whatever about the subject, he would have 

 occupied an impregnable position. His fifth the- 

 sis would have been as indisputable as his first four. 

 But Professor Haeckel does not stop here. He de- 

 clares virtually that if an evolutionist is found 

 entertaining the beliefs in a personal God and an im- 

 mortal soul, nevertheless these beliefs are not philo- 

 sophically reconcilable with his scientific theory of 

 things, but are mere remnants of an old-fashioned 

 \ superstition from which he has not succeeded in 

 \ freeing himself. 



\ Here one must pause to inquire what Professor 

 Haeckel means by " a personal God." If he refers 



