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 naturalist, 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 half 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 Jean 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 
163 
