ut also in their religious and ethical depths, some in {19} acknowledgment
and admiration, others in aversion and repugnance, and only a few in sober
and unprejudiced judgment. While some see in Darwinism the flambeau which
now lights mankind to entirely new paths of truth, and also to spiritual
and moral perfection, others see in it only an unproved hypothesis,
threatening to become the torch which might change the noblest and greatest
acquirements of the culture of past centuries into a heap of ashes; while
some date from it a new period of culture, others see in it a deep descent
of the present from the scientific, religious, and moral height which
mankind has ascended.

Under these circumstances, it has become an impossibility for religion and
the moral interest as guardians of the highest and most sacred acquisitions
of mankind, and still more for theology and ethics as the scientific
representations of religion and morality, to remain idle spectators. It
would certainly be more agreeable to them, and more profitable, if they
could delay their judgment until the question became better cleared up. For
the whole question presented by Darwin has not yet passed beyond the stage
of problems and attempts at solution; and there is always something
unsatisfactory in being compelled to deal with theories which in their
fundamentals are still hypotheses. But since all tendencies of the present
which are hostile to Christianity and to the theistic view of the world,
from the most extreme materialism up to the most sublime monism (as
pantheism and materialism of to-day have begun to call themselves),
seemingly with the confidence of complete victory, take possession of
Darwinism as the solid ground from which they hope to destroy all and every
belief {20} connected with faith in a living creator and master of the
world, it has also become impossible for those to whom the religious and
ethical acquisitions of mankind are a sacred sanctuary to take any longer a
reserved and expectant position. Silence now would be looked upon only as
an inglorious retreat; and thus nothing remains but openly to face the
question: What position must religion and morality take in reference to the
Darwinian theories?

In order to treat of the question with that objectivity which it requires,
we have to begin with a synopsis of the theories themselves. In this
representation we have to discriminate strictly between the merely
scientific theories and