4 THE COMING OF EVOLUTION [CH. i 



greater Lucretius really was, for he divined a truth, 

 which Darwin spent a life of labour in groping for.' 

 Mr Alfred Russel Wallace has so well and clearly 

 set forth the essential difference between the points 

 of view of the cultivators of literature and science 

 in this matter, that I cannot do better than to quote 

 his words. They are as follows : 



'I have long since come to see that no one deserves either 

 praise or blame for the ideas that come to him, but only for the 

 actions resulting therefrom. Ideas and beliefs are certainly not 

 voluntary acts. They come to us we hardly know how or 

 whence, and once they have got possession of us we cannot reject 

 them or change them at will. It is for the common good that the 

 promulgation of ideas should be free uninfluenced by either 

 praise or blame, reward or punishment.' 



* But the actions which result from our ideas may properly be so 

 treated, because it is only by patient thought and work that new 

 ideas, if good and true, become adopted and utilized; while, 

 if untrue or if not adequately presented to the world, they are 

 rejected or forgotten 1 .'* 



Ideas of Evolution, both in the Organic and the 

 Inorganic world, existed but remained barren for 

 thousands of years. Yet by the labours of a band 

 of workers in last century, these ideas, which were 

 but the dreams of poets and the guesses of philo- 

 sophers, came to be the accepted creed of working 

 naturalists, while they have profoundly affected 

 thought and language in every branch of human 

 enterprise. 



* For References see the end of the volume. 



