SCIENCE AND FAITH. 335 



at the same time, on the other hand, once more to set forth 

 the convincing arguments which bear testimony to the 

 truth of the theory of development. 



The objections which are raisedto the doctrine of descent 

 may be divided into two large groups : objections of faith 

 and objections of reason. The objections of the first group 

 originate in the infinitely varied forms of faith held by 

 human individuals, and need not here be taken into con- 

 sideration at all. For, as I have already remarked at the 

 beginning of this book, science, as an objective result of 

 sensuous experience, and of the striving of human reason 

 after knowledge, has nothing whatever to do with the sub- 

 jective ideas of faith, which are preached by a single man 

 as the direct inspirations or revelations of the Creator, and 

 then believed in by the dependent multitude. This belief, 

 very different in different nations, only begins, as is well 

 known, where science ends. Natural Science believes, 

 according to the maxim of Frederick the Great, " that 

 every one may go to heaven in his own fashion," and only 

 neoessarily enters into conflict with particular forms of 

 faith where they appear to set a limit to free inquiry 

 and a goal to human knowledge, beyond which we are 

 not to venture. Now this is certainly the case here in 

 the highest degree, for the Theory of Development applies 

 itself to the solution of the greatest of scientific problems — 

 that of the creation, the coming into existence of things ; 

 more especially the origin of organic forms, and of man at 

 their head. It is here certainly the right as well as the 

 sacred duty of free inquiry, to fear no human authority, 

 and courageously to raise the veil from the image of the 

 Creator, unconcerned as to what natural truth may lie con- 



