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FREEDOM
IN
SCIENCE AND TEACHING.
FROM THE GERMAN OF
ERNST HAECKEL.
_WITH A PREFATORY NOTE_
By T. H. HUXLEY, F.R.S.
DER TELEOLOG
"Welche Verehrung verdient der Weltenschoepfer der gnaedig.
Als er den Korkbaum schuf, gleich auch die Stoepfel erfand."
XENIEN.
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
549 AND 551 BROADWAY.
1879.
PREFATORY NOTE.
In complying with the wish of the publishers of Professor Haeckel's
reply to Professor Virchow, that I should furnish a prefatory note
expressing my own opinion in respect of the subject-matter of the
controversy, Gay's homely lines, prophetic of the fate of those "who
in quarrels interpose," emerge from some brain-cupboard in which they
have been hidden since my childish days. In fact, the hard-hitting
with which both the attack and the defence abound, makes me think with
a shudder upon the probable sufferings of the unhappy man whose
intervention should lead two such gladiators to turn their weapons
from one another upon him. In my youth, I once attempted to stop a
street fight, and I have never forgotten the brief but impressive
lesson on the value of the policy of non-intervention which I then
received.
But there is, happily, no need for me to place myself in a position
which, besides being fraught with danger, would savour of presumption:
Careful study of both the attack and the reply leaves me without the
inclination to become either a partisan or a peacemaker: not a
partisan, for there is a great deal with which I fully agree said on
both sides; not a peacemaker, because I think it is highly desirable
that the important questions which underlie the discussion, apart from
the more personal phases of the dispute, should be thoroughly
discussed. And if it were possible to have controversy without
bitterness in human affairs, I should be disposed, for the general
good, to use to both of the eminent antagonists the famous phrase of a
late President of the French Chamber--"_Tape dessus._"
No profound acquaintance with the history of science is needed to
produce the conviction, that the advancement of natural knowledge has
been effected by the successive or concurrent efforts of men, whose
minds are characterised by tendencies so opposite that they are forced
into conflict with one another. The one intellect is imaginative and
synthetic; its chief aim is to arrive at a broad and coherent
conception of the relations of phenomena; the other is positive,
critical, analytic, and sets the highest value upon the exact
determination and statement of the phenomena themselves.
If the man of the critical school takes the pithy aphorism "Melius
autem est naturam secare quam abstrahere"[1] for his motto, the
champion of free speculation may retort with another from the same
hand, "Citius enim emergit veritas e falsitate quam e confusione;"[2]
and each may adduce abundant historical proof that his method has
contributed as much to the progress of knowledge as that of his rival.
Every science has been largely indebted to bold, nay, even to wild
hypotheses, for the power of ordering and grasping the endless details
of natural fact which they confer; for the moral stimulus which arises
out of the desire to confirm or to confute them; and last, but not
least, for the suggestion of paths of fruitful inquiry, which, without
them, would never have been followed. From the days of Columbus and
Kepler to those of Oken, Lamarck, and Boucher de Perthes, Saul, who,
seeking his father's asses, found a kingdom, is the prototype of many
a renowned discoverer who has lighted upon verities while following
illusions, which, had they deluded lesser men, might possibly have
been considered more or less asinine.
On the other hand, there is no branch of science which does not owe at
least an equal obligation to those cool heads, which are not to be
seduced into the acceptance of symmetrical formulae and bold
generalisations for solid truths because of their brilliancy and
grandeur; to the men who cannot overlook those small exceptions and
insignificant residual phenomena which, when tracked to their causes,
are so often the death of brilliant hypotheses; to the men, finally,
who, by demonstrating the limits to human knowledge which are set by
the very conditions of thought, have warned mankind against fruitless
efforts to overstep those limits.
Neither of the eminent men of science, whose opinions are at present
under consideration, can be said to be a one-sided representative
either of the synthetic or of the analytic school. Haeckel, no less
than Virchow, is distinguished by the number, variety, and laborious
accuracy of his contributions to positive knowledge; while Virchow, no
less than Haeckel, has dealt in wide generalisations, and, until the
obscurantists thought they could turn his recent utterances to
account, no one was better abused by them as a typical free-thinker
and materialist. But, as happened to the two women grinding at the
same mill, one has been taken and the other left. Since the
publication of his famous oration, Virchow has been received into the
bosom of orthodoxy and respectability, while Haeckel remains an
outcast!
To those who pay attention to the actual facts of the case, this is a
very surprising event; and I confess that nothing has ever perplexed
me more than the reception which Professor Virchow's oration has met
with, in his own and in this country; for it owes that reception, not
to the undoubted literary and scientific merits which it possesses,
but to an imputed righteousness for which, so far as I can discern, it
offers no foundation. It is supposed to be a recantation; I can find
no word in it which, if strictly construed, is inconsistent with the
most extreme of those opinions which are commonly attributed to its
author. It is supposed to be a deadly blow to the doctrine of
evolution; but, though I certainly hold by that doctrine with some
tenacity, I am able, _ex animo_, to subscribe to every important
general proposition which its author lays down.
In commencing his address, Virchow adverts to the complete freedom of
investigation and publication in regard to scientific questions which
obtains in Germany; he points out the obligation which lies upon men
of science, even if for no better reason than the maintenance of this
state of things, to exhibit a due sense of the responsibility which
attaches to their speaking and writing, and he dwells on the necessity
of drawing a clear line of demarcation between those propositions
which they have a fair right to regard as established truths, and
those which they know to be only more or less well-founded
speculations. Is any one prepared to deny that this is the first great
commandment of the ethics of teaching? Would any responsible
scientific teacher like to admit that he had not done his best to
separate facts from hypotheses in the minds of his hearers; and that
he had not made it his chief business to enable those whom he
instructs to judge the latter by their knowledge of the former?
More particularly does this obligation weigh upon those who address
the general public. It is indubitable, as Professor Virchow observes,
that "he who speaks to, or writes for, the public is doubly bound to
test the objective truth of that which he says." There is a sect of
scientific pharisees who thank God that they are not as those
publicans who address the public. If this sect includes anybody who
has attempted the business without failing in it, I suspect that he
must have given up keeping a conscience. For assuredly if a man of
science, addressing the public, bethinks him, as he ought to do, that
the obligation to be accurate--to say no more than he has warranty
for, without clearly marking off so much as is hypothetical--is far
heavier than if he were dealing with experts, he will find his task a
very admirable mental exercise. For my own part, I am inclined to
doubt whether there is any method of self-discipline better calculated
to clear up one's own ideas about a difficult subject, than that which
arises out of the effort to put them forth, with fulness and
precision, in language which all the world can understand. Sheridan
is said to have replied to some one who remarked on the easy flow of
his style, "Easy reading, sir, is--hard writing;" and any one who is
above the level of a scientific charlatan will know that easy speaking
is "----hard thinking."
Again, when Professor Virchow enlarges on the extreme incompleteness
of every man's knowledge beyond those provinces which he has made
his own (and he might well have added within these also), and when
he dilates on the inexpediency, in the interests of science, of
putting forth as ascertained truths propositions which the progress
of knowledge soon upsets--who will be disposed to gainsay him? Nor
have I, for one, anything but cordial assent to give to his
declaration, that the modern development of science is essentially
due to the constant encroachment of experiment and observation on
the domain of hypothetical dogma; and that the most difficult, as
well as the most important, object of every honest worker is "_sich
ent-subjectiviren_"--to get rid of his preconceived notions, and to
keep his hypotheses well in hand, as the good servants and bad masters
that they are.
I do not think I have omitted any one of Professor Virchow's main
theses in this brief enumeration. I do not find that they are disputed
by Haeckel, and I should be profoundly astonished if they were. What,
then, is all the coil about, if we leave aside various irritating
sarcasms, which need not concern peaceable Englishmen? Certainly about
nothing that touches the present main issues of scientific thought.
The "plastidule-soul" and the potentialities of carbon may be sound
scientific conceptions, or they may be the reverse, but they are no
necessary part of the doctrine of evolution, and I leave their defence
to Professor Haeckel.
On the question of equivocal generation, I have been compelled, more
conspicuously and frequently than I could wish, during the last ten
years, to enunciate exactly the same views as those put forward by
Professor Virchow; so that, to my mind, at any rate, the denial that
any such process has as yet been proved to take place in the existing
state of nature, as little affects the general doctrine.[3]
With respect to another side issue, raised by Professor Virchow, he
appears to me to be entirely in the wrong. He is careful to say that
he has no unwillingness to accept the descent of man from some lower
form of vertebrate life; but, reminding us of the special attention
which, of late years, he has given to anthropology, he affirms that
such evidence as exists is not only insufficient to support that
hypothesis, but is contrary to it. "Every positive progress which we
have made in the region of prehistoric anthropology has removed us
further from the demonstration of this relation."
Well, I also have studied anthropological questions in my time; and I
feel bound to remark, that this assertion of Professor Virchow's
appears to me to be a typical example of the kind of incautious
over-statement which he so justly reprehends.
For, unless I greatly err, all the real knowledge which we possess of
the fossil remains of man goes no farther back than the Quaternary
epoch; and the most that can be asserted on Professor Virchow's side
respecting these remains is, that none of them present us with more
marked pithecoid characters than such as are to be found among the
existing races of mankind.[4] But, if this be so, then the only just
conclusion to be drawn from the evidence as it stands is, that the men
of the Quaternary epoch may have proceeded from a lower type of
humanity, though their remains hitherto discovered show no definite
approach towards that type. The evidence is not inconsistent with the
doctrine of evolution, though it does not help it. If Professor
Virchow had paid as much attention to comparative anatomy and
palaeontology as he has to anthropology, he would, I doubt not, be
aware that the equine quadrupeds of the Quaternary period do not
differ from existing _Equidae_ in any more important respect than these
last differ from one another; and he would know that it is,
nevertheless, a well-established fact that, in the course of the
Tertiary period, the equine quadrupeds have undergone a series of
changes exactly such as the doctrine of evolution requires. Hence
sound analogical reasoning justifies the expectation that, when we
obtain the remains of Pliocene, Miocene, and Eocene _Anthropidae_, they
will present us with the like series of gradations, notwithstanding
the fact, if it be a fact, that the Quaternary men, like the
Quaternary horses, differ in no essential respect from those which now
live.
I believe that the state of our knowledge on this question is still
justly summed up in words written some seventeen years ago:--
"In conclusion, I may say, that the fossil remains of man hitherto
discovered do not seem to me to take us appreciably nearer to that
lower pithecoid form by the modification of which he has probably
become what he is. And considering what is now known of the most
ancient races of men; seeing that they fashioned flint axes, and flint
knives, and bone skewers of much the same pattern as those fabricated
by the lowest savages at the present day, and that we have every
reason to believe the habits and modes of living of such people to
have remained the same from the time of the mammoth and the tichorhine
rhinoceros till now, I do not know that the result is other than might
be expected."[5]
I have seen no reason to change the opinion here expressed, and so far
from the fact being in the slightest degree opposed to a belief in the
evolution of man, all that has been learned of late years respecting
the relation of the Recent and Quaternary to the Tertiary mammalia
appears to me to be in striking harmony with what we know respecting
Quaternary man, supposing man to have followed the general law of
evolution.
The only other collateral question of importance raised by Professor
Virchow is, whether the doctrine of evolution should be generally
taught in schools or not. Now I cannot find that Professor Virchow
anywhere distinctly repudiates the doctrine; all that he distinctly
says is that it is not proven, and that things which are not proven
should not be authoritatively instilled into the minds of young
people.
If Professor Virchow will agree to make this excellent rule absolute,
and applicable to all subjects that are taught in schools, I should be
disposed heartily to concur with him.
But what will his orthodox allies say to this? If "not provenness" is
susceptible of the comparative degree, by what factor must we multiply
the imperfection of the evidence for evolution in order to express
that of the evidence for special creation; or to what fraction must
the value of the evidence in favour of the uninterrupted succession of
life be reduced in order to express that in support of the deluge?
Nay, surely even Professor Virchow's "dearest foes," the "plastidule
soul" and "Carbon & Co.," have more to say for themselves, than the
linguistic accomplishments of Balaam's ass and the obedience of the
sun and moon to the commander of a horde of bloodthirsty Hebrews! But
the high principles of which Professor Virchow is so admirable an
exponent do not admit of the application of two weights and two
measures in education; and it is surely to be regretted that a man of
science of great eminence should advocate the stern bridling of that
teaching which, at any rate, never outrages common sense, nor refuses
to submit to criticism, while he has no whisper of remonstrance to
offer to the authoritative propagation of the preposterous fables by
which the minds of children are dazed and their sense of truth and
falsehood perverted. Professor Virchow solemnly warns us against the
danger of attempting to displace the Church by the religion of
evolution. What this last confession of faith may be I do not know,
but it must be bad indeed if it inculcates more falsities than are at
present foisted upon the young in the name of the Church.
I make these remarks simply in the interests of fair play. Far be it
from me to suggest that it is desirable that the inculcation of the
doctrine of evolution should be made a prominent feature of general
education. I agree with Professor Virchow so far, but for very
different reasons. It is not that I think the evidence of that
doctrine insufficient, but that I doubt whether it is the business of
a teacher to plunge the young mind into difficult problems concerning
the origin of the existing condition of things. I am disposed to think
that the brief period of school-life would be better spent in
obtaining an acquaintance with nature, as it is; in fact, in laying a
firm foundation for the further knowledge Which is needed for the
critical examination of the dogmas, whether scientific or
anti-scientific, which are presented to the adult mind. At present,
education proceeds in the reverse way; the teacher makes the most
confident assertions on precisely those subjects of which he knows
least; while the habit of weighing evidence is discouraged, and the
means of forming a sound judgment are carefully withheld from the
pupil.
* * * * *
Professor Virchow is known to me only as he is known to the world in
general--by his high and well-earned scientific reputation. With
Professor Haeckel, on the other hand, I have the good fortune to be on
terms of personal friendship. But in making the preceding
observations, I should be sorry to have it supposed that I am holding
a brief for my friend, or that I am disposed to adopt all the opinions
which he has expressed in his reply. Nevertheless, I do desire to
express my hearty sympathy with his vigorous defence of the freedom of
learning and teaching; and I think I shall have all fair-minded men
with me when I also give vent to my reprobation of the introduction of
the sinister arts of unscrupulous political warfare into scientific
controversy, manifested in the attempt to connect the doctrines he
advocates with those of a political party which is, at present, the
object of hatred and persecution in his native land. The one blot, so
far as I know, on the fair fame of Edmund Burke is his attempt to
involve Price and Priestley in the furious hatred of the English
masses against the authors and favourers of the revolution of 1789.
Burke, however, was too great a man to be absurd, even in his errors;
and it is not upon record that he asked uninformed persons to consider
what might be the effect of such an innovation as the discovery of
oxygen on the minds of members of the Jacobin Club.
Professor Virchow is a politician--maybe a German Burke, for anything
that I know to the contrary; at any rate, he knows the political value
of words; and, as a man of science, he is devoid of the excuses that
might be made for Burke. Nevertheless, he gravely charges his hearers
to "imagine what shape the theory of descent takes in the head of a
Socialist."
I have tried to comply with this request, but I have utterly failed to
call up the dread image; I suppose because I do not sufficiently
sympathise with Socialists. All the greater is my regret that
Professor Virchow did not himself unfold the links of the hidden bonds
which unite evolution with revolution, and bind together the community
of descent with the community of goods.
Professor Virchow is, I doubt not, an accomplished English scholar.
Let me commend the "Rejected Addresses" to his attention. For since
the brothers Smith sang--
"Who makes the quartern loaf and Luddites rise,"--
Who fills the butchers' shops with large blue flies,
there has been nothing in literature at all comparable to the attempt
to frighten sober people by the suggestion that evolutionary
speculations generate revolutionary schemes in Socialist brains. But
then the authors of the "Rejected Addresses" were joking, while
Professor Virchow is in grim earnest; and that makes a great
difference in the moral aspect of the two achievements.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Novum Organon, li.
[2] Partis instaurationis secundae delineatio.
[3] I may remark parenthetically that Professor Virchow's statement of
the attitude of Harvey towards equivocal generation is strangely
misleading. For Harvey, as every student of his works knows, believed in
equivocal generation; and, in the sense in which he uses the word ovum,
"nempe substantiam quandam corpoream vitam habentem potentia," the truth
of the axiom "omne vivum ex ovo," popularly ascribed to him, has in no
wise been affected by the discoveries of later days in the manner
asserted by Professor Virchow.
[4] I do not admit that so much can be said; for the like of the
Neanderthal skull has yet to be produced from among the crania of
existing men.
[5] Man's Place in Nature, p. 159.
PREFACE.
When the address delivered by Rudolph Virchow on the 22d of September
last year, at the fiftieth meeting of German Naturalists and
Physicians at Munich, on "Freedom of Science in the Modern State,"
appeared in print in the following October, I was called upon, on many
sides, to prepare a reply. And such a reply on my part seemed, in
fact, justified by the severe strictures which Virchow in his
discourse had directed against one delivered by me only four days
previously, before the same meeting, on "The Modern Doctrine of
Evolution in its Relation to General Science." The general views which
Virchow then unfolded proved such a fundamental opposition in our
principles, and touched our dearest moral convictions so nearly, that
any reconciliation of such antagonistic views was no longer to be
thought of. Nevertheless I forbore publishing the ready reply for two
reasons: one relating to the matter itself, the other a personal one.
With regard to the matter itself, I believed I might confidently leave
it to futurity to decide in the contention that has declared itself
between us. For on one hand the doctrine of evolution which Virchow
attacks has already so far become a sure basis of biological science
and part of the most precious mental-stock of cultivated humanity,
that neither the anathemas of the Church nor the contradiction of the
greatest scientific authority--and such an one is Virchow--can prevail
against it; and on the other hand most of the arguments which he
specially adduces against the theory of descent have been so often
discussed and so thoroughly refuted that any renewed discussion seems
in fact superfluous.
Personally, it was in the highest degree repugnant to me to come
forward as the opponent of a man whom I learned, a quarter of a
century ago, to acknowledge and to honour as the reformer of medical
science; a man whose most ardent disciple and most enthusiastic
follower I at that time was, with whom I subsequently stood in the
closest relation as his assistant, and with whom I long after
continued in the most friendly intercourse. The more keenly I lamented
Virchow's position, for some years past, as the antagonist of our
modern doctrine of evolution, and the more I felt myself challenged to
a reply by his repeated attacks upon it, the less inclination I felt,
nevertheless, to come forward publicly as the opponent of this
distinguished and highly-honoured man.
And if I find myself, after all, forced to reply, it is in the
persuasion that a longer silence will add to the erroneous conclusions
which my hitherto resigned attitude has already given rise to; at the
same time I believe that, precisely by reason of the peculiar interest
with which I have throughout followed Virchow's scientific
achievements, I am specially qualified to answer the question, a
hundred times repeated by letter or by word of mouth--"How is it
possible that a man who so long stood at the head of a party of
progress in science as in politics, who in political life indeed, has
outwardly maintained this position, has in science become an
instrument of the most perilous reaction?"
A verbal answer, which I incidentally gave in March of last year at
the Concordia Banquet at Vienna, was reported in the daily papers in
such a different sense, and was in part so misunderstood or so
intentionally misrepresented, that I am forced at last, on that
account, to publish a clear and unambiguous reply. The "Augsburger
Allgemeine Zeitung," which eagerly seizes every opportunity of
expressing its unconquerable aversion to the evolution theory, accused
me, in one of its hostile articles, of a virulent and undignified
attack on Virchow. In contradiction of this misrepresentation in the
Augsburg paper--which was copied by other journals--I must expressly
assert that not Virchow but I myself am the person attacked, and
that, therefore, the matter in question is not an unjustifiable attack
by me on a formerly revered friend, but a defence to which I am
compelled by repeated and sharp attacks on his part.
Another reason which urges me at last to break silence consists in the
continual and ample advantage that all the clerical and reactionary
organs have been taking of Virchow's address, during the last
three-quarters of a year, in favour of mental retrogression. The
shouts of triumph with which they at once hailed Virchow's "grand
moral action," that is to say, his perversion from a Free-thinker to
the side of mental darkness, was the first signal for that persistent
utilisation of his authority of which the pernicious consequences can
by no means be escaped. Friedrich von Hellwald, in his discussion on
the speeches made at Munich, has already strikingly pointed out[6] the
grave danger that exists when just such an one as Virchow, standing
under the banner of political liberalism and wrapped in the mantle of
severe science, decisively combats against the freedom of science and
of its doctrines. This serious danger has never shown so threatening
an aspect as at the present moment, when our political and religious
life appears to be encountering such a reaction as has not occurred
for a long time. The two insane attempts which, within a few weeks,
have been made by Social-democracy against the revered and reverend
person of the German Emperor have raised a storm of righteous
indignation of such violence that calm judgment is entirely
overthrown, and that many even of the most liberal of liberal
politicians not only impetuously urge us to the severest measures
against the Utopian doctrines of social democracy but, far
over-shooting the mark, demand that free-doctrine and free-thought,
that freedom of the press and even freedom of conscience shall be
thrown into the narrowest fetters. Can this reaction, lurking in the
background, find any more welcome support than is afforded by the mere
demand of such a man as Virchow for restriction of liberty in
teaching? And if he makes our present doctrines of evolution in
general and the theory of descent in particular responsible for the
mad doctrines of social-democracy, it is but a natural and just
consequence when the famous New-Prussian "Kreuz-Zeitung" throws all
the blame of these treasonable attempts of the democrats Hoedel and
Nobiling--as in fact it quite lately did--directly on the theory of
descent, and especially on the hated doctrine of the "descent of man
from apes." And the danger which threatens us shows a still graver
aspect when we consider how great an influence Virchow has at the
present day as an advanced liberal, and how he is regarded in the
Prussian diet as the highest practical authority, and at the same time
as the most liberal critic when educational questions are under
consideration. Now it is well known that one of the most important
problems lying before the Prussian parliament is the consideration of
a new education-law, which will probably exercise its restricting
influence for a long time to come, not in Prussia only, but throughout
Germany; what can we expect of such an education-law if in the course
of the deliberations, among the small number of those specialists who
are generally listened to, Virchow raises his voice as a leading
authority, and brings forward the principles that he proclaimed in his
speech at Munich as the surest guarantees for the freedom of science
in the modern polity? Article XX. of the Prussian Charter, and Sec. 152
of the Code of the German Empire, say, "Science and its doctrines are
free." And Virchow's first step, according to the principles he now
declares, must be a motion to abrogate this paragraph.
In the face of this imminent danger, I dare no longer hesitate about
my answer. _Amicus Socrates, amicus Plato, magis amica Veritas._ An
unreserved and public opposition can be no longer postponed. As a
matter of fact, at the Munich meeting, neither did Virchow hear my
speech nor I his. I read my paper, as it is printed, on the 18th
September 1877, and left on the 19th. Virchow came to Munich only on
the 20th, and delivered his speech on the 22d.
Bearing in mind the gratitude which I owe to Virchow as my former
master and friend at Wuerzburg--a gratitude which I have at all times
striven to prove by the further development of his mechanical
theory--I shall confine myself, as far as possible, to an objective
and special confutation of his assertions. Certainly the temptation on
this occasion was a strong one to pay the debt in like kind. In my
Munich lecture, among the few names to which I alluded, I particularly
mentioned that of Virchow as the distinguished founder of
cellular-pathology (p. 12).[7] Virchow's return for this was to heap
scorn and ridicule on the doctrine of evolution in his usual manner.
The critic in the "National-Zeitung," Herr Isidor Kastan, says of this
with particular satisfaction, "The ridicule with which Herr Virchow
treated this side of Haeckel's visions was indeed caustic enough, but
this is ever Virchow's way; only in this case, if in any, he was fully
justified."
I could less easily ignore Virchow's denunciation of me than his
satire--a denunciation which gibbeted me as a confederate in the
social-democratic cause, and which made the theory of descent
answerable for the horrors of the Paris Commune. The opinion is now
widely spread that by this intentional connection of the theory of
descent with Social Democracy he has hit the hardest blow at that
theory, and that he aimed at nothing less than the removal of all
"Darwinists" from their academic chairs and professorships. This is
the inevitable consequence of his demands; for if Virchow insists with
the utmost determination that the theory of descent must not be taught
(because he does not regard it as true), what is to become of the
supporters of that theory who, like myself, regard it as
incontrovertibly true, and teach it as a perfectly sound theory? And
at least nine-tenths of all the teachers of zoology and botany in
Europe are among its supporters from immutable conviction of its
truth, as well as all morphologists without exception. Virchow cannot
expect that these teachers should collectively renounce that which
they believe to be immutable truth, and in its place set up the dogma
of the Church as the basis of their teaching, in accordance with his
wish! Nothing remains for them but to vacate their professors' chairs,
and--according to Virchow and the "Germania"--the "Modern Polity"
would be in duty bound to deprive them of their liberty of teaching if
they did not voluntarily renounce it.
If this be indeed Virchow's purpose, as it is generally supposed to
be, with regard to me, at least, he may spare himself the trouble.
Amongst us in Jena quite other ideas prevail as to the "Freedom of
science in the modern Polity" than those which obtain in the capital,
Berlin. And among us the Berlin students' rhyme has no meaning,
"Who knows the truth and freely speaks,
On him the law its vengeance wreaks."[8]
The Jena students, on the contrary, sing the rhyme in its original
form--
"Who knows the truth and speaks it not,
A feeble wretch is he, God wot."[9]
The Rector Magnificentissimus of the University of Jena, the Grand
Duke of Saxony, who has proved himself the protector of the arts and
sciences, has besides far more liberal views as to the liberty of
scientific investigation and teaching than the illustrious head of the
party of progress at Berlin. The enlightened and liberal Prince at
Weimar, under whose particular protection we in Jena find ourselves,
has never conceived it necessary to limit in any way the unbounded
freedom of my teaching and my writing; not even when in 1866 my
"General Morphology," and 1868 my "History of Creation" first
appeared, and when many people attempted to make the youthful
extravagances which were to be found in those works the ground of a
serious accusation. And what farther mischief have these extravagances
done, though I now sincerely lament them?
Faithful to the glorious traditions of a past extending over three
centuries, the little Thuringian university of Jena will find a way to
preserve her perfect and unlimited freedom. She will ever bear in mind
that she is the first Protestant university of Germany, protesting
against every strait-waistcoat which hierarchical obstinacy would
force upon human reason, against every dogma by which the arrogance of
the learned may try to suppress all freedom of teaching. She will
freely seek and freely teach in accordance with her highest
convictions, untroubled by the fact that in the "great" university of
Berlin nothing may be taught, as Virchow insists, but what is
objectively ascertained, absolutely sure; that is to say, nothing that
rises above individual, indubitable, and intelligible facts; not an
idea, not a conception, not a theory, in fact not any real science;
mathematics, at most, excepted. It is our conviction that Jena will
continue to be an independent city of refuge for free science and free
teaching as long as it remains under the faithful nurture and liberal
protection of the princely house of Sax Weimar, that enlightened race
which is linked with the history of German intellect through the
matchless traditions of its glorious past. What the Wartburg was to
Martin Luther, what Weimar has been to the foremost heroes of German
literature, what Jena herself has been during three hundred years to a
vast number of illustrious investigators, that will the tried and
tested Jena of to-day undoubtedly continue to be to the modern
doctrine of evolution, as to every other doctrine which asks free
development; a strong-hold of free thought, free investigation, and
free doctrine.
ERNST HAECKEL.
JENA, _June 24th_, 1878.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] Kosmos, Vol. II. p. 172.
[7] Of the German.
[8]
"Wer die Wahrheit kennet und saget sie frei,
Der kommt in Berlin auf die Stadt-Vogtei."
[9]
"Wer die Wahrheit kennet und saget sie nicht
Der ist fuer wahr ein erbaermlicher Wicht."
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFATORY NOTE v
PREFACE xxi
CHAP.
I. DEVELOPMENT AND CREATION 1
II. CERTAIN PROOFS OF THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT 10
III. THE SKULL THEORY AND THE APE THEORY 29
IV. THE CELL-SOUL AND CELLULAR PSYCHOLOGY 46
V. THE GENETIC AND DOGMATIC METHODS OF TEACHING 61
VI. THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT AND SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 88
VII. IGNORABIMUS ET RESTRINGAMUR 99
FREEDOM IN SCIENCE AND TEACHING.
CHAPTER I.
DEVELOPMENT AND CREATION.
Nothing is more helpful for the understanding of scientific
controversies, or for the clearing of confused conceptions, than a
contrasted statement, as defined and clear as possible, of the
simplest leading propositions of the contending doctrines. Hence it is
highly favourable to the victory of our modern doctrine of evolution
that its chief problem, the question as to the origin of species, is
being more and more pressed by these opposite alternatives: Either all
organisms are naturally evolved, and must in that case be all
descended from the simplest common parent-forms--or: That is not the
case, and the distinct species of organisms have originated
independently of each other, and in that case can only have been
created in a supernatural way, by a miracle. Natural evolution, or
supernatural creation of species--we must choose one of these two
possibilities, for a third there is not.
But as Virchow, like many other opponents of the doctrine of
evolution, constantly confounds this latter proposition with the
doctrine of descent, and that again with Darwinism, it will not be
superfluous to indicate here, in a few words, the limitation and
subordination of these three great theories.
I. The general doctrine of development, the progenesis-theory or
evolution-hypothesis (in the widest sense), as a comprehensive
philosophical view of the universe, assumes that a vast, uniform,
uninterrupted and eternal process of development obtains throughout
all nature; and that all natural phenomena without exception, from the
motions of the heavenly bodies and the fall of a rolling stone to the
growth of plants and the consciousness of men, obey one and the same
great law of causation; that all may be ultimately referred to the
mechanics of atoms--the mechanical or mechanistic, homogeneous or
monistic view of the universe; in one word, Monism.
II. The doctrine of derivation, or theory of descent, as a
comprehensive theory of the natural origin of all organisms, assumes
that all compound organisms are derived from simple ones, all
many-celled animals and plants from single-celled ones, and these last
from quite simple primary organisms--from monads. As we see the
organic species, the multiform varieties of animals and plants, vary
under our eyes through adaptation, while the similarity of their
internal structure is reasonably explicable only by inheritance from
common parent-forms, we are forced to assume common parent-forms for
at least the great main divisions of the animal and vegetable
kingdoms, and for the classes, orders, and so forth. Thus the number
of these will be very limited, and the primitive archigonian
parent-forms can be nothing else than monads. Whether we finally
assume a single common parent-form (the monophyletic hypothesis), or
several (the polyphyletic hypothesis), is wholly immaterial to the
essence of the theory of descent; and it is equally immaterial to its
fundamental idea what mechanical causes are assumed for the
transformation of the varieties. This assumption of a transformation
or metamorphosis of species is, however, indispensable, and the theory
of descent is very properly called also the "metamorphosis
hypothesis," or "doctrine of transmutation;" as well as Lamarckism,
after Jean Lamarck, who first founded it in 1809.
III. The doctrine of elimination, or the selection theory, as the
doctrine especially of "choice of breed or selection," assumes that
almost all, or at any rate most, organic species have originated by a
process of selection; the artificial varieties under conditions of
domestication--as the races of domestic animals and cultivated
plants--through artificial choice of breeds; and the natural varieties
of animals and plants in their wild state by natural choice of breeds:
in the first case, the will of man effects the selection to suit a
purpose; in the second, it is effected in a purposeless way by the
"struggle for existence." In both cases the transformation of the
organic forms takes place through the reciprocal action of the laws of
inheritance and of adaptation; in both cases it depends on the
survival or selection of the better-qualified minority. This theory of
elimination was first clearly recognised and appreciated in its full
significance by Charles Darwin in 1859, and the selection-hypothesis
which he founded on it is Darwinism properly so called.
The relation that these three great theories, which are frequently
confounded, bear to one another may, according to the present position
of science, be simply defined as follows:--I. Monism, the universal
theory of development, or the monistic progenesis-hypothesis, is the
one only scientific theory which affords a rational interpretation of
the whole universe and satisfies the craving of our human reason for
causality, by bringing all natural phenomena into a mechanical
causal-connection as parts of a great uniform process of evolution.
II. The theory of transmutation, or descent, is an essential and
indispensable element in the monistic development hypothesis, because
it is the one only scientific theory which rationally explains the
origin of organic species--that is to say, by transformation--and
reduces it to mechanical principles. III. The theory of Selection or
Darwinism is, up to the present time, the most important of the
various theories which seek to explain the transformation of species
by mechanical principles, but it is by no means the only one. If we
assume that most species have originated through natural elimination,
we also now know, on the other hand, that many forms distinguished as
varieties are hybrids between two different varieties, and can be
propagated as such; and it is equally well worthy of consideration
that other causes are in activity in the formation of species of
which, up to the present time, we have no conception. Thus it is left
to the judgment of individual naturalists to decide what share is to
be attributed to natural selection in the origin of species, and even
at the present day authorities differ widely on the subject. Some give
it a large share, and some a very small one in the result. Moritz
Wagner, for instance, would substitute his own migration-hypothesis
for Darwin's theory of selection; while I regard the action of
migration, which acts as isolation or separation, as merely a special
mode of selection. But these differing estimates of Darwinism are
quite independent of the absolute import of the doctrine of descent
or of transformation, for the latter is as yet the only theory which
rationally explains the origin of species. If we discard it, nothing
remains but the irrational assumption of a miracle, a supernatural
creation.
In this crucial and unavoidable dilemma, Virchow has declared himself
publicly in favour of the latter, and against the former hypothesis.
Every one who has attentively followed his occasional utterances on
the theory of descent during the last decade with an unprejudiced eye
and an unbiassed judgment, must be convinced that he fundamentally
rejects it. Still, his dissent has always been so obscured, and his
judgment on Darwinism in particular so wrapped in ambiguities, that an
opportune conversion to the opposite side seemed not impossible; and
many, even among those who stood near to Virchow--his friends and
disciples--did not know to what point he was in fact an opponent of
the evolution hypothesis in general. Virchow took the last step
towards clearing up this matter at Munich; for after his Munich
address there can be no farther doubt that he belongs to the most
decided opponents of the whole theory of evolution, including those of
inheritance and selection.
If any one still has doubts on the matter, let him read the jubilant
hymns of triumph with which Virchow's friend and collaborator, Adolf
Bastian, greeted his Munich discourse. This "enfant terrible" of the
school--this well-nicknamed "Acting privy counsellor of the board of
confusion"[10]--whose merits in involuntarily advancing the cause of
metamorphism I have already done justice to in the preface to the
third edition of my "Natural History of Creation"[11]--expresses
himself in the "Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie," which is edited by him
and Virchow (tenth yearly part, X. 1878, p. 66) as follows:--"At the
Munich meeting of naturalists, Virchow by a few weighty words cleared
the atmosphere, which was heavy and stifling under the pressure of the
incubus called Descent, and once more freed science from that
nightmare which it has so long--in many opinions so much too
long--allowed to weigh upon it; freed it, let us hope, once and for
ever. The forecasts of this storm were discernible many years since,
and its whole course has been a strictly normal one. When the germs
planted by Darwin, and that promised so much, were forced into growth
by a feverish, hot-house heat, and began to sprout into sterile weeds,
their small vitality was plain to our eyes. So long as the waves run
too high under the pressure of a psychical storm, it is almost useless
to protest against it, for every ear is too much deafened by the
noise all round to hear the voice of individuals. It is best to leave
things to go their own way, deeper and deeper into the mire, till they
come to a stand-still there of their own accord; for 'Quos deus vult
perdere prius dementat.' Thus it is in this case. When the
extravagances of the descent hypothesis, encouraged as they were by
mutual incitement, had reached their highest pitch in the ravings that
were uttered at Munich, the too pointed point broke in this
superabundance of absurdity almost by its own pointedness, and so we
were quit of it with one blow. Now, happily, all is over with the
theory of descent, or ascent, but natural science will not on that
account fare any the worse, for many of its adherents belong to her
ablest youth, and as they now need no longer waste their best time on
romantic schemes, they will have it to use at the orders and for the
advancement of science, so as to enrich her through real and solid
contributions."
Furthermore, Bastian quotes Virchow's maxim:--"The plan of
organisation is immutable within the limits of the species; species is
not produced from species." The fundamental teleological idea of that
school, that each species has its constant and specific plan of
structure, certainly cannot be more emphatically expressed. Thus it is
undoubtedly certain that Virchow has become a Dualist, and is as
thoroughly penetrated by the truth of his principles as I, as a
Monist, am of mine. This is undoubtedly the upshot of his Munich
address, though he is throughout careful to avoid acknowledging his
chief standpoint in all its nakedness. On the contrary, even now he
still veils his antagonism under the phrase, which is also a favourite
with the clerical papers, that the theory of descent is an "unproved
hypothesis." Now it is clear that this theory never will be "proved"
if the proofs that already lie before us are not sufficient. How often
has it been repeated that the scientific certainty of the hypothesis
of descent is not grounded in this or that isolated experiment, but in
the collective sum of biological phenomena; in the causal nexus of
evolution. Then what are the new proofs of the theory of descent which
Virchow demands of us?
FOOTNOTES:
[10] "Wirkliche Geheime Ober-Confusionsrath."
[11] Translated under the supervision of E. Ray Lankester. London: C.
Kegan Paul & Co.