Islam Rediscovered
24. A Case of Discovery*
~ 411 ~
Edinburgh, I fell in with the writings of Thomas
Carlyle, who inspired me not only with a genuine
love for German literature but also with a real
admiration for Luther, Goethe and Schiller. I began
to study German in right earnest, and quietly made
up my mind to visit that great country which had
produced such a grand literature and given birth to
such truly heroic souls as mentioned above. The
east winds of Edinburgh which ill-suited my
naturally delicate constitution, gave me a further
plea, and I soon transhipped myself over to Leipzig
with a determination to study science, literature and
philosophy in the academic halls of that world-
renowned University where Lessing and Goethe
had finished their studies a century ago. As I was
interested in biology and was soon greatly attracted
by the Darwinian Theory of Evolution, which was
then creating a tremendous ferment all over the
German Fatherland, I soon read most of the
writings of Buchner and Hackel, of Darwin and of
Huxley and above all, of Herbert Spencer. Herbert
Spencer had made a practical application of the
Evolution Theory to religion and politics, art and
society; in other words, to all the multifarious
branches of human thought and feelings, and had
