360 THE HISTORY OF CREATIOK 



objections to those special testimonies which they now 

 maintain against our theory. 



The absolute certainty of the Theory of Descent, even in 

 its application to man, is built on a more solid foundation ; 

 and its true inner value can never be tested simply by 

 reference to individual experience, but only by a philo- 

 sophical comparison and estimation of the treasures of all 

 our biological experiences. The inestimable importance of 

 the Theory of Descent is surely based upon this, that the 

 theorj'- follows of necessity (as a general inductive law) 

 from the comparative synthesis of all organic phenomena 

 of nature, and more especially from the triple parallelism 

 of comparative anatomy, of ontogeny, and phylogeny ; and 

 the pithecoid theory under all circumstances (apart from 

 all special proofs) remains as a special deductive conclu- 

 sion which must of necessity be drawn from the general 

 inductive law of the Theory of Descent. 



In my opinion, all depends upon a right understanding of 

 this philosophical foundation of the Theory of Descent 

 and of the pithecoid theory which is inseparable from it. 

 Many persons wiU probably admit this, and yet at the same 

 time maintain that aU this applies only to the bodily, not 

 to the mental development of man. Now, as we have 

 hitherto been occupied only with the former, it is perhaps 

 necessary here to east a glance at the latter, in order to show 

 that it is also subject to the great general law of develop- 

 ment. In doing this it is above all necessary to recoUect 

 that body and mind can in fact never be considered as 

 distinct, but rather that both sides of nature are inseparably 

 connected, and stand in the closest interaction. As even 

 Goethe has clearly expressed it — "matter can never exist and 



