204 ON THE RECEPTION OF THE ' ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' 



in one sense, exactly where the prae-Darwinian generations 

 were. They remain insoluble. But the present generation 

 has the advantage of being better provided with the means 

 of freeing itself from the tyranny of certain sham solutions. 



The known is finite, the unknown infinite ; intellectually 

 we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean 

 of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to 

 reclaim a little more land, to add something to the extent 

 and the solidity of our possessions. And even a cursory 

 glance at the history of the biological sciences during the 

 last quarter of a century is sufficient to justify the assertion, 

 that the most potent instrument for the extension of the 

 realm of natural knowledge which has come into men's hands, 

 since the publication of Newton's ' Principia,' is Darwin's 

 ' Origin of Species.' 



It was badly received by the generation to which it was 

 first addressed, and the outpouring of angry nonsense to which 

 it gave rise is sad to think upon. But the present generation 

 will probably behave just as badly if another Darwin should 

 arise, and inflict upon them that which the generality of man- 

 kind most hate the necessity of revising their convictions. 

 Let them, then, be charitable to us ancients ; and if they 

 behave no better than the men of my day to some new 

 benefactor, let them recollect that, after all, our wrath did not 

 come to much, and vented itself chiefly in the bad language 

 of sanctimonious scolds. Let them as speedily perform a 

 strategic right-about-face, and follow the truth wherever it 

 leads. The opponents of the new truth will discover, as those 

 of Darwin are doing, that, after all, theories do not alter facts, 

 and that the universe remains unaffected even though texts 

 crumble. Or, it may be, that, as history repeats itself, their 

 happy ingenuity will also discover that the new wine is 

 exactly of the same vintage as the old, and that (rightly 

 viewed) the old bottles prove to have been expressly made 

 for holding it. 



