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What Is Darwinism? · Charles Hodge — chapter 11 of 16 · ~1,073 words · public domain

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Jenaer Literaturzeitung, January 3, 1874. In this number there is a notice by Doctor Haeckel of two books,--Descendenzlehre und Darwinismus, von Oscar Schmidt, Leipzig, 1873; and Die Fortschritte des Darwinismus, von J. W. Spengel, Coeln and Leipzig, 1874; in which he says: "Erstens, um in Sachen der Descendenz-Theorie mitreden zu koennen, ein gewisser Grad von tieferer biologischer (sowohl morphologischer als physiologischer) Bildung unentbehrlich, den die meistzen von jenen Auctoren (the opposers of the theory) nicht besitzen. Zweitens ist fuer ein klares und zutreffendes Urtheil in diesem Sachen eine ruecksichtslose Hingabe an vernunftgemaesse Erkenntniss und eine dadurch bedingte Resignation auf uralte, liebgewordene und tief vererbte Vorurtheile erforderlich, zu welcher sich die wenigsten entschliesen koennen."

In his Natuerlische Schoepfungsgeschichte, Haeckel is still more exclusive. When he comes to answer the objections to the evolution, or, as he commonly calls it, the descendence theory, he dismisses the objections derived from religion, as unworthy of notice, with the remark that all Glaube ist Aberglaube; all faith is superstition. The objections from a priori, or intuitive truths, are disposed of in an equally summary manner, by denying that there are any such truths, and asserting that all our knowledge is from the senses. The objection that so many distinguished naturalists reject the theory, he considers more at length. First, many have grown old in another way of thinking and cannot be expected to change. Second, many are collectors of facts, without studying their relations, or are destitute of the genius for generalization. No amount of material makes a building. Others, again, are specialists. It is not enough that a man should be versed in one department; he must be at home in all: in Botany, Zooelogy, Comparative Anatomy, Biology, Geology, and Palaeontology. He must be able to survey the whole field. Fourthly, and mainly, naturalists are generally lamentably deficient in philosophical culture and in a philosophical spirit. "The immovable edifice of the true, monistic science, or what is the same thing, natural science, can only arise through the most intimate interaction and mutual interpenetration of philosophy and observation (Philosophie und Empirie)." pp. 638-641. It is only a select few, therefore, of learned and philosophical monistic materialists, who are entitled to be heard on questions of the highest moment to every individual man, and to human society.

This short but significant sentence is omitted in the excellent translation of Strauss's book, by Mathilde Blind, republished in New York, by Henry Holt & Company, 1873.

The Fallacies of Darwinism, by C. R. Bree, M. D., p. 308.

The Fallacies of Darwinism, p. 305.

Bibliotheca Sacra, 1857, p. 861.

The Story of Earth and Man, p. 358.

Dr. Bree, p. 275. We presume geologists differ in the terms which they use to designate strata. Agassiz calls the oldest containing fossil, the sub-Cambrian. Principal Dawson calls the oldest the Laurentian, and places the first vertebrates in the Silurian. This is of no moment as to the argument. The important fact is that each species is distinct as soon as it appears; and that many have remained to the present time.

Atlantic Monthly, January, 1874.

We have heard a story of a gentleman who gave an artist a commission for a historical painting, and suggested as the subject, the Passage of the Israelites over the Red Sea. In due time he was informed that his picture was finished, and was shown by the artist a large canvas painted red. "What is that?" he asked. "Why," says the artist, "that is the Red Sea." "But where are the Israelites?" "Oh, they have passed over." "And where are the Egyptians?" "They are under the sea."

As Regards Protoplasm in Relation to Professor Huxley's Essay an the Physical Basis of Life. By Dr. James H. Stirling. See, also, Physiological Anatomy and Physiology of Man, by L. S. Beale; also, The Mystery of Life in Reply to Dr. Gull's Attack on the Theory of Vitality. By L. S. Beale, M. D., 1871.

The address delivered by Sir William Thomson, as President of the British Association at its meeting in Edinburgh, 1871.

The Old Faith and the New. Prefatory Postscript, xxi.

Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication. New York, 1868, vol. ii. pp. 515, 516.

Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Cambridge, 1873, p. 20.

The Atlantic Monthly for October, 1860. The three articles in the July, August, and October numbers of the Atlantic, on this subject, have been reprinted with the name of Dr. Asa Gray as their author.

Strauss says that as he has arrived at the conclusion that there is no personal God, and no life after death, it would seem to follow that the question, Have we still a religion? "must be answered in the negative." But as he makes the essence of religion to consist in a sense of dependence, and as he felt himself to be helpless in the midst of this whirling universe, he had that much religion left.

ADVERTISEMENTS

The Great Theological Work of the Age.

DR. HODGE'S THEOLOGY.

Systematic Theology.

By CHARLES HODGE, D.D., LL.D.,

of Princeton Theological Seminary.

Complete in three volumes 8vo, tinted paper. Price, vols. I. and II., $4.50. Vol. III., $5.

In these volumes are comprised the results of the life-long labors and investigations of one of the most eminent theologians of the age. The work covers the ground usually occupied by treatises on Systematic Theology, and adopts the commonly received divisions of the subject,--THEOLOGY, Vol. I.; ANTHROPOLOGY, Vol. II.; SOTERIOLOGY AND ESCHATOLOGY, Vol. III.

The INTRODUCTION is devoted to the consideration of preliminary matters, such as Method, or the principles which should guide the student of Theology, and the different theories as to the source and standard of our knowledge of divine things, Rationalism, Mysticism, the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Rule of Faith, and the Protestant doctrine on that subject.

The department of THEOLOGY proper includes the origin of the Idea of God, the Being of God, the Anti-Theistic systems of Atheism, Polytheism, Materialism, and Pantheism; the Nature of God, the Divine Attributes, the Doctrines of the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit; the Decrees of God, Creation, Providence, and Miracles.

The department of ANTHROPOLOGY includes the Nature, Origin, and Antiquity of Man, his Primitive State and Probation; the Fall; the Effect of Adam's Sin upon himself and upon his Posterity; the Nature of Sin; the Different Philosophical and Theological Theories on that subject.

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