ession of mankind, confirmed by the
fact that they develop themselves on the way from the sensual stage to the
rational exactly according to the principles of Darwin--namely, through
transmission with individual variability in the struggle for existence,
through selection of the fittest. With special earnestness, he pronounces
the indissoluble unity of religion and morality, {228} and says that
religion, as it presents itself upon Darwinian grounds, is a moral
religion.

We find here and there in periodicals many more voices which pronounce the
conviction that, out of the present contest of minds, peace between
religion and science will result.

* * * * *

_B. THE DARWINIAN THEORIES AND MORALITY._

PRELIMINARY VIEW.

We can treat much more briefly of this portion of our task than of the
position of the Darwinians in reference to the religious question, for the
reason that the contrasts in the ethical realm are far less sharply drawn
than in the religious realm, although in principle they are not less widely
apart. For while there are a great many men who think that it belongs to
good society and to the indispensable characteristics of high modern
education to show either cold indifference or direct hostility in reference
to religion and to the whole religious question; while a great many of the
much-read works of _belle lettres_ never tire of teaching the reading
public that the religious question really no longer exists for the educated
man, on the other hand, nobody, not even the extremest atheist and enemy of
religion, wishes to renounce the reputation of having moral principles.
Thus it happens that the positions taken by the Darwinians in reference to
the ethical question are less varied than those taken by them in reference
to the religious question. And we may also be brief for another reason,
{229} namely, that by reviewing the position of the Darwinians in reference
to the religious question, we have essentially prepared the way for the
principal questions which will have to be treated.

We shall group the utterances upon the relation of the Darwinian theories
to morality as we did those in regard to the relation of Darwinism to
religion; and shall first let the advocates of an irreconcilableness
between the two speak, then those advocating a reformative influence of
Darwinism upon morality, and finally those striving for neutrality and
peace between the two. We shall have