August 23, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



227 



causes, what are the supernatural agencies 

 that bring them into existence ? There are 

 good and bad types of men, then there 

 must be good and bad genii. The truth is, 

 the philosophy of Professor Eucken is a 

 mental remnant of the primitive man who 

 believed in a geocentric universe, peopled 

 Olympus with gods, good and bad, and 

 filled the woods with satyrs, nymphs and 

 fairies. If the learned author knew some- 

 thing of science he would be more of a 

 philosopher. He speaks of the inner life 

 losing all independent value if man is 

 affected by external conditions. I infer 

 from this that he makes the inner life the 

 supernatural part of man. It is impossible 

 to tell what he means by the inner life. If 

 he means man's mentality, we know that 

 this is affected by natural conditions. 

 Strike a man on the head and depress his 

 skull and his mentality is disturbed. 

 Under the influence of such a poison as 

 alcohol he may become insane. If by inner 

 life he means man's morality, there again 

 are abundant evidences that man 's morality 

 is affected by external conditions. The in- 

 sane are not criminally responsible, and a 

 man with some foreign body driven into his 

 brain may become a liar, a thief or a 

 murderer. 



The condemnation of science by Pro- 

 fessor Eucken for its cruelty can be ex- 

 plained only on the assumption that he 

 fails utterly to comprehend the doctrine of 

 evolution. Is the science of eugenics, 

 whose object is to secure healthier and bet- 

 ter parents for the unborn, cruel ? Are all 

 our efforts toward securing wholesome 

 water, unadulterated food, hygienic hous- 

 ing, and, in short, the betterment of life in 

 every possible way, cruel ? Do we improve 

 our breeds of horses, cows, dogs, etc., by 

 turning them out without shelter in the 

 most rigorous weather, and who proposes to 

 improve the types of man in that way? 



No philosophy evolved from the inner 

 consciousness of man has ever done man 

 half the good that has been secured to him 

 by the discovery of the agents of infection. 

 In fact no important discovery in science 

 has failed to better the lot of man. The 

 printing press disseminated knowledge. 

 The discovery of illuminating gas drove 

 crime from the streets of large cities. The 

 telegraph and telephone have hastened the 

 detection of the criminal. Steam and elec- 

 tricity are driving the wheels of the manu- 

 facturing world and distributing the prod- 

 ucts of all climes. Improved machinery is 

 shortening the hours of labor and lifting 

 from man's shoulders his heaviest burdens. 

 In short, I know of no scientific discovery 

 which has not contributed to the physical, 

 intellectual and moral betterment of the 

 world, and certainly this can be said of 

 nothing else. 



The foundation stone of my philosophy 

 is the doctrine of evolution, the truth of 

 which has been so abundantly and posi- 

 tively demonstrated by geological, embry- 

 ological and biological evidence. I shall 

 not attempt to establish the soundness of 

 the theory of evolution. I consider this 

 already done. 



Through countless ages this development 

 has been going on. The time was in the 

 history of this planet when the conditions 

 of temperature, moisture, etc., were such 

 that life as we know it could not have 

 existed. But this does not mean that life 

 in some form did not exist. By life we 

 mean that combination of matter and en- 

 ergy by which the former is endowed with 

 the capability of growth and reproduction. 

 Such a combination of matter and energy 

 might have existed when the earth was a 

 molten mass, without water upon its sur- 

 face and without the present atmospheric 

 envelope, but the life of that time, if there 

 were any, was quite different from any 



