Not
unfrequently, they, in their turn, overdo the critical process, and,
in trying to eliminate error, throw away truth.
Thus, as I said, Linnaeus, Buffon, Cuvier, Lamarck, really "set forth
the results" of a developing science, although they often heartily
contradict one another. Notwithstanding this circumstance, modern
classificatory method and nomenclature have largely grown out of the
work of Linnaeus; the modern conception of biology, as a science, and
of its relation to climatology, geography, and geology, are, as
largely, rooted in the results of the labours of Buffon; comparative
anatomy and palaeontology owe a vast debt to Cuvier's results; while
invertebrate zoology and the revival of the idea of evolution are
intimately dependent on the results of the work of Lamarck. In other
words, the main results of biology up to the early years of this
century are to be found in, or spring out of, the works of these men.
So, if I mistake not, Strauss, if he did not originate the idea of
taking the mythopoeic faculty into account in the development of the
Gospel narratives, and though he may have exaggerated the influence of
that faculty, obliged scientific theology, hereafter, to take that
element into serious consideration; so Baur, in giving prominence to
the cardinal fact of the divergence of the Nazarene and Pauline
tendencies in the primitive Church; so Reuss, in setting a marvellous
example of the cool and dispassionate application of the principles of
scientific criticism over the whole field of Scripture; so Volkmar, in
his clear and forcible statement of the Nazarene limitations of Jesus,
contributed results of permanent value in scientific theology.
Pages:
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382