hese arguments so closely
resemble those of the Jesuits that they might have been inspired
direct from the Vatican, or, which is the same thing, the notorious
"court-chaplain party" in Berlin. No wonder, then, that these
propositions, which would undermine the whole liberty of science, have
met with the loudest approbation from the "Germania," the "New
Evangelical Church Times" ("Neue Evangelischen Kirchenzeitung"), and
other leading, equivocating organs of the Church militant. On the
other hand, these odious principles are already so extensively
discussed, and have been so clearly laid down in all their
indefensibility, that I may here deal with them briefly.

Virchow's politics as a pedagogue reach their highest pitch in this
demand: "that in all schools, from the poor schools to the
universities, nothing shall be taught that is not absolutely certain.
None but objective and absolutely ascertained knowledge is to be
imparted by the teacher to the learner; nothing subjective, no
knowledge that is open to correction, only facts, no hypotheses." The
investigation of such problems as the whole nation may be interested
in must not be restricted; that is liberty of inquiry; but the problem
ought not, without anything farther, to be the subject of _teaching_.
"When we teach we must restrict ourselves to the smaller, and yet how
great, departments which we are actually masters of."

Rarely indeed has such a treasonable attempt on liberty of doctrine
been made by a prominent representative of science, and a leader of
the intellectual movement too, as this by Virchow. Only inquiry is to
be free and not teaching! And where in the whole history of science is
there one single scientific inquirer to be found who would not have
felt himself quite justified in teaching his own subjective
convictions with as much right as he had to construct them from
inquiry into objective facts. And where, generally speaking, is the
limit to be found between objective and subjective knowledge? Is
there, in fact, any objective science?

This question Virchow answers in the affirmative, for he goes on to
say: "We must not forget that there is a boundary line between the
speculative departments of natural science and those that are actually
conquered and firmly established" (p. 8). In my opinion, there is no
such boundary line; on the contrary, all human knowledge as such is
subjective. An objective science which consists merely of facts
without an