SCIENTIFIC FAITH ONCE MORE 



The scientific faith which triumphs over all 

 obstacles is not common. The late Alfred Russel 

 Wallace was an eminent scientist and natiu-alist, co- 

 laborer with Darwin in sustaining the theory of the 

 origin of species by natural selection; but he could 

 not accept the whole of Darwinism. The break in 

 his scientific faith is seen in his failure to accept com- 

 pletely the animal origin of man; he looked upon 

 man's spiritual nature as a miraculous addition to 

 his animal inheritance. Natural science owes a 

 great debt to Agassiz, but he, too, faltered before 

 the problem of the origin of species through natural 

 descent. He belonged to an age that had not fully 

 emancipated itself from the dogmas of the church. 

 He saw an incarnated thought of the Creator in 

 every species of animal and plant. The great major- 

 ity of mankind still see a dualist world — half nat- 

 ural and haJf supernatural. But the strict scientist 

 knows only the natural. Even the origin of life is 

 to him only a problem of the inherent potency of 

 matter. 



Darwin's scientific faith was not quite able to 

 stand alone; it had to lean upon teleological props. 

 He could not accept the whole proposition of the 

 natural origin of man and of other forms of life; his 

 theory of descent had to start with a few forms, 

 animal and vegetable, three or four, miraculously 

 brought into the world by the creative power of an 

 omnipotent being; these few original forms, through 

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