[1] The word "evolution" is still used in so many different ways in various sciences that it is important to fix it in the general significance which we here give it. By "evolution," in the widest sense, I understand the unceasing "mutations of substance," adopting Spinoza's fundamental conception of substance; it unites inseparably in itself "matter and force (or energy)," or "nature and mind" (= the world and God). Hence the science of evolution in its broader range is "the history of substance," which postulates the general validity of "the law of substance." In the latter are combined "the law of the constancy of matter" (Lavoisier, 1789) and "the law of the conservation of energy" (Robert Mayer, 1842), however varied may be the changes of form of these elements in the world-process. Cf. Chapter XII. of The Riddle.

[2] Certain orthodox periodicals have lately endeavoured to deny this famous atheistical confession of the great Laplace, which was merely a candid deduction of his splendid cosmic system. They say that this Monistic natural philosopher acknowledged the Catholic faith on his death-bed; and in proof of this they offer us the later testimony of an Ultramontane priest. We need not point out how uncertain is the love of truth of these heated partisans. When testimony of this kind tends to "the good of religion" (i.e., their own good), it is held to be a pious work (pia fraus). On the other hand, it is interesting to recall the reply of a Prussian Minister of Religion, Von Zedlitz, 120 years ago, to the Breslau Consistory, when it urged that "those who believe most are the best subjects." He wrote in reply: "His majesty [Frederick the Great] is not disposed to rest the security of his State on the stupidity of his subjects."

[3] See, for instance, Moses and Geology, or Harmony of the Bible with Science, by Samuel Kinns (1882). In this work the pious Biblical astronomer executes the most incredible and Jesuitical manoeuvres in order to bring about an impossible reconciliation between science and the Biblical narrative.

[4] The eel-like sophistry of the Jesuits, which has been brought to such a wonderful pitch in their political system, cannot, as a rule, be met by argument. An interesting illustration of this was given by Father Wasmann himself in his controversy with the physician, Dr. Julian Marcuse. The "scientific" Wasmann had gone so far in his zeal for religion as to support a downright swindle of a "miraculous cure" in honour of the "Mother of God of Oostacker" (the Belgian Lourdes). Dr. Marcuse succeeded in exposing the whole astounding story of this "pious fraud" (Deutsche Stimmen, Berlin, 1903, iv. Jahrg., No. 20). Instead of giving a scientific refutation, the Jesuit replied with sophistic perversion and personal invective (Scientific [?] Supplement to Germania, Berlin, 1902, No. 43, and 1903, No. 13). In his final reply, Dr. Marcuse said: "I have accomplished my object—to let thoughtful people see once more the kind of ideas that are found in the world of dead and literal faith, which tries to put the crudest superstition and reverence for the myth of miraculous cures in the place of science, truth and knowledge" (Deutsche Stimmen, 1903, v. Jahrgang, No. 3).

[5] While these pages are in the press the journals announce a fresh humiliation of the German empire that will cause great grief. On the 9th of May the nation celebrated the centenary of the death of Friedrich Schiller. With rare unanimity all the political parties of Germany, and all the German associations abroad, came together to do honour to the great poet of German idealism. Professor Theobald Ziegler delivered a very fine address at Strassburg University. The Emperor, who happened to be in the town, was invited, but did not attend; instead of doing so, he held a military parade in the vicinity. A few days afterwards he sat at table with the German Catholic cardinals and bishops, amongst them being the fanatical Bishop Benzler, who declared that a Christian cemetery was desecrated by the interment of a Protestant. At these festive dinners German Catholics always give the first toast to the Pope, the second to the Emperor; they rejoice at present that the Emperor and Pope are allies. But the whole history of the papacy (a pitiful caricature of the ancient Catholic faith) shows clearly that they are natural and irreconcilable enemies. Either emperor must rule or pope.

[6] The manuscript letter in which the gentle Darwin expresses so severe a judgment on Virchow is printed in my Cambridge lecture, The Last Link. My answer to Virchow's speech is contained in the second volume of my Popular Lectures, and has lately appeared in the Freie Wort (April, 1905).

[7] In his presidential speech at the last meeting of the British Association, Professor Darwin said: "It does not seem unreasonable to suppose that 500 to 1,000 million years may have elapsed since the birth of the moon." [Trans.]

[8] See account of similar experiments in the Lancet, 18th January, 1902. [Trans.]

[9] Wasmann meets these convincing experiments with mere Jesuitical sophistry. Of the same character is his attack on my Evolution of Man, and on the instructive work of Robert Wiedersheim, Man's Structure as a Witness to his Past.

[10] I may remind those who think that the hall of the Musical Academy is "desecrated" by my lectures, that it was in the very same place that Alexander von Humboldt delivered, seventy-seven years ago (1828), the remarkable lectures that afterwards made up his Cosmos. The great traveller, whose clear mind had recognised the unity of Nature, and had, with Goethe, discovered therein the real knowledge of God, endeavoured to convey his thoughts in popular form to the educated Berlin public, and to establish the universality of natural law. It was my aim to establish, as regards the organic world, precisely what Humboldt had proved to exist in inorganic nature. I wanted to show how the great advance of modern biology (since Darwin's time) enables us to solve the most difficult of all problems, the historical development of plants and animals in humanity. Humboldt in his day earned the most lively approval and gratitude of all free-thinking and truth-seeking men, and the displeasure and suspicion of the orthodox and conservative courtiers at Berlin.