342 FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 
chief of these is that whatever can not be stated in 
terms of human experience is unintelligible to man. 
Whatever can not be thought can not be lived. 
Philosophy has its recognised methods of procedure. 
These are laid down in the mechanism of the human 
brain itself. Science has found these 
methods untrustworthy as a means of 
reaching objective truth. The final test of truth is this: 
“Can we make it work? Can we trust our lives to 
it?’”’ This test the conclusions of philosophy can not 
meet. In so far as they do so they are conclusions of 
science. As science advances in any field, philosophy is 
driven out of it. The fact has been often noted, that 
every great conclusion of science has been anticipated 
by philosophy, most of them by the philosophy of the 
Greeks, But every theory science has shown to be 
false has been likewise anticipated. The Greeks taught 
the theory of development centuries before Darwin. 
But if Darwin’s studies in life variation had led to any 
other result whatsoever, he would have been equally 
anticipated by the Greeks. In other words, every con- 
ceivable guess as to the origin and meaning of familiar 
phenomena has been exhausted by philosophy. Some 
of these guesses contain elements of truth. Which of 
these has such elements it is the business of science to 
find out. Philosophy has no means of doing so. A 
truth not yet shown to be true is in science not’ a 
truth. It has no more validity than any other general- 
ization not shown to be false. Helm- 
holtz tells us that philosophy deals with 
such “ schlechtes Stoff,” such bad subject- 
matter, that it can give no trustworthy 
conclusions. Science alone can give the test of human 
life. The essence of this test is experiment. The tests 
of philosophy are mainly these: “Is the conception 
The test of truth. 
The matter phi- 
losophy deals 
with, 
