mankind is descended from one or more pairs of men_.
We pass it by; because it has no connection whatever with the acceptance or
rejection of the Darwinian ideas, and since it is not yet archaeologically
and scientifically solvable. There are Darwinians who think
monogenetically, and others who think polygenetically; and there is still a
third class--and they speak most correctly--who acknowledge that they know
nothing about it. Besides, we can also pass by this question, for the
reason that in spite of the important place which it occupies in the
theological system of St. Paul, we have no right to assign to it, in the
form in which we put it, the decisive dogmatic importance which it still
occupies in many conceptions of Christian theology. For we cannot question
the right of the natural sciences to enter into the discussion of this
question, and to look for a solution of it. As soon as we make this
concession, it necessarily and naturally follows from it, that we must no
longer make the substance and truth of our religious possession, even in a
subordinate manner, dependent on the results of exact investigations: for
our religious possessions have too deep a basis of truth, to permit us to
ground them on the results of investigations in a realm so dark for science
and so far removed from religious interest. As to this question, we may
hope for a future solution in the monogenetic sense: we may rejoice over
the fact that, according to the present state of knowledge, the needle of
the scale rather inclines in favor of a oneness of origin of mankind; but
we must also be prepared to accept the possibility of a contrary result,
without being afraid that in such a case we should have to abandon at once
that religious factor {340} for whose sake the advocates of a monogenetic
descent might defend their view. This religious (and, we may add, quite as
strong ethic) factor consists in the idea of the intimate unity and
brotherhood of mankind. We must absolutely adhere to this idea; for it is
in opposition to the particularism which, quite without exception, governed
the entire old world, even its most highly developed nations, and which was
only penetrated by some beams of hope and prediction in the prophecy of
Israel--one of the most beautiful and blissful gifts of Christianity to
mankind. This idea still contains, as ethical motive, one of the strongest,
most indispensable, and most promising forces in the world. If this idea
s