360 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



So little is it generally understood that " evolution " 

 and what is called " Darwinism " convey indeed the 

 same main conclusion, but that this conclusion has been 

 reached by two distinct roads, one of which is impreg- 

 nable, while the other has already fallen into the hands 

 of the enemy, that in the last November number of 

 the * Nineteenth Century' Professor Tyndall, while re- 

 ferring to descent with modification or evolution, speaks 

 of it as though it were one and inseparable from Mr. 

 Darwin's theory that it has come about mainly by 

 means of natural selection. He writes : 



"Darwin's theory, as pointed out nine or ten years 

 ago by Helmholtz and Hooker, was then exactly in this 

 condition of growth ; and had they to speak of the 

 subject to-day they would be able to announce an 

 enormous strengthening of the theoretic fibre. Fissures 

 in continuity which then existed, and which left little 

 hope of being ever spanned, have been since bridged 

 over, so that the further the theory is tested the more 

 fully does it harmonize with progressive experience 

 and discovery. We shall never probably fill all the 

 gaps ; but this will not prevent a profound belief in 

 the truth of the theory from taking root in the general 

 mind. Much less will it justify a total denial of the 

 theory. The man of science, who assumes in such a 

 case the position of a denier, is sure to be stranded and 

 isolated." 



This is in the true vein of the professional and 

 orthodox scientist; of that new orthodoxy which is 

 clamouring for endowment, and which would step into 

 the Pope's shoes to-morrow, if we would only let it. If 



