98 



FACTS AND FANCIES 



mechanical, and unsympathetic view of man and 

 nature. This is especially serious when we re- 

 member how earnestly in a recent address he 

 advocated the teaching of the methods and re- 

 sults of this book, as those which, in the present 

 state of knowledge, should supersede the Bible 

 in our schools. We may well say,*with his great 

 opponent on that occasion, that if such doctrines 

 should be proved to be true, the teaching of 

 them might become a necessity, but one that 

 would bring us face to face with the darkest and 

 most dangerous moral problem that has ever 

 beset humanity ; and that so long as they re- 

 main unproved it is both unwise and criminal 

 to propagate them among the mass of men 

 as conclusions which have been demonstrated 

 by science. 



In conclusion, we may notice shortly a few 

 of the consequences of the monistic evolution 

 as held by Haeckel and others. Doctrines are 

 perhaps not to be judged by the consequences 

 — at least, by the immediate consequences — of 

 their acceptance. Yet if their logical conse- 

 quences are such as to introduce confusion into 

 our higher ideas and sentiments, we have rea- 

 son to hesitate as to their adoption — if on no 

 other ground, because we ourselves are a part 



