great reform, every important advance, meets with a resistance in proportion to the depth of the prejudices and dogmas it assails, we shall not be surprised that Darwin’s able theory has as yet met with little but hostility instead of its well-merited appreciation and test.” There is yet no question of man and his origin. But what he says is very bold for the time; and before a year is out we shall find him drawing the most dangerous conclusion of all. And it is found, not in a late page and note in a stout technical volume, but in the pitiless glare of the sunlight, in the most prominent position that could then be given to it in German scientific culture. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER V THE SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS OF 1863 In the second decade of the nineteenth century, Oken had inspired the formation of large public gatherings of German naturalists and physicians. Oken was one of the advanced thinkers who felt that all technical science was in the end only preparatory to the great work of educating the people. In his opinion the naturalist, even if he spent his whole life in investigating the filaments of plants or the limbs of insects, was a pioneer of culture. In any case these gatherings were a very good practical move at the time. In a time of terrible reaction on all sides a feeling came at last even to the recluse of science that, besides the technical value of his work, it ought to do something towards lifting his fellows out of the rut they were falling into. They felt that if all ideals were going to be lost, the ultimate aim of special research would perish with them. Oken took up a position of democratic opposition. He was soon joined by Alexander von Humboldt, who, with the same feeling at heart, gave the work a certain polish of scientific and impartial dignity. There are features of his work that amuse us to-day, but those were evil days, and every particle of goodwill had to be appreciated. However, there was a serious difficulty. The bolder elements met in congresses, and encouraged each other in the pursuit of their ideal. But it at once became clear in their public discussions that some of their purely scientific discoveries were dangerous and heretical in such a period of reaction. This or that had hitherto been buried innocently in scientific monographs, quite unknown to the crowd, and the author might be a royal councillor, receive decorations, and almost be an elder of the Church. Suddenly, by means of these assemblies, the sinfulness of all this lore about snails or insects or vertebrates was brought to light and put before the profane public, and there was much anger. The whole of scientific research was full of secret plots, heresies, and bombs—against God.