304 PROFESSOR DUNS, D.D., F.R.S.E., KTC, ON 



statement of the opposite tnitli, by licai'tily accordinii^ to 

 others the liberty of tlionght and expression which Ave chiini 

 for ourselves, by affirniiug without reserve that we Avill 

 v/elcome truth, come how it may and whence it may, and 

 that the only limits of freedom we will recognise are those 

 which the truth itself determines. This attitude to free 

 mquiry is sacred in every department of science ; in biology, 

 especially, the least indication of forgetting it is to be 

 resisted, because in it we have to deal with many legiti- 

 mate, though speculative, questions, and to handle many 

 facts whose significance may vary — often does vary — as 

 the relations in which they stand, and as the mental 

 qualities of those who appeal to them. In these, indeed, 

 the student finds what gives to enquiry its strongest attrac- 

 tions. Every fact has its own meaning — a meaning which 

 time cannot destroy and which mental bias cannot vitiate. 

 To reveal this, to set it in its own place as beyond challenge, 

 as an established truth, in a word as science, becomes a 

 substantial contribution to the sum of our abiding know- 

 ledge. Slowly but surely this has been going on wlienever 

 and wherever the true students of nature have worlced with 

 right motive and in legitimate lines — avoiding generalisa- 

 tions Avhose data are partly speculative and partly real, and 

 rejecting the reasoning which claims for notions touchhig 

 changeful phenomena the value of established principles, or, 

 even, the weight and dignity of natural law. 



" What dazzles for the moment spends its spirit." 



It is alleged that all tlie tendencies of recent IJiulogy are 

 toward materialism, indeed, that the well-marked trend of 

 all highest thouglit is in that direction ; that philosopher is 

 slowly but surely undermining religion ; that the pursuit of 

 truth for truth's sake is disappearing from among men ; a)id 

 that the natural sciences are valued by the prevailing 

 industrialism of the age, only so far as they can be hel])ful 

 to money-making. These, however, are less than half 

 truths, but even as such they claim attention, were it for 

 no other motive than to encourage that great constituency 

 whose vigorous and enlightened conmiou sense keeps them 

 clear of the wild assei-fions of " the new biology," the verl)al 

 mists of "the higher criticism." and of" godless mati-rialisni." 



The object 1 have in view throughout this pajter is to 

 give prominence to biological facts and phent)meiia, which 

 seem to me to warrant not only the postulation, but the 



