DAEWIN AND GEOLOGY 353 



Darwin's hypothesis and the facts on which it was based have become 

 so familiar that students sometimes express surprise that so much praise 

 has been awarded to the author. The conditions as presented in his 

 discussion are so clear that certainly no man could reach any other 

 conclusion. That is true, but it is true only because Darwin mar- 

 shalled his facts in a manner so masterly ; in any event, it is always easy 

 to do a thing when another has done it well and told us how. But it 

 must be remembered that an hypothesis of this sort, though normal 

 enough in our day, was very abnormal in that day; indeed, it was con- 

 trary to Darwin's own underlying conceptions, for, though a uniformi- 

 tarian, he had seen many phenomena which, for a time, made him only 

 a halting disciple. Yet his hj^othesis was a monumental contribution 

 in support of the uniformitarian doctrine, which, under the leadership 

 of Lyell, was gaining sturdy adherents. That the hypothesis met with 

 uncompromising opposition need not be said. The material of coral 

 origin extended to vast depths alongside of the islands, in some cases 

 apparently to 4,000 feet. The upward growth of the reef was known 

 to be extremely slow. If the subsidence and the upward growth kept 

 pace, as was essential to the hypothesis, evidently the required period, 

 belonging to the latest portion of the earth's existence, was immensely 

 long. It is difficult now to understand how great moral courage was 

 needed by the man who published such a doctrine ; sixty years ago, the 

 educated man of Great Britain had not learned to distinguish between 

 faith and prejudice. 



This effort to explain the origin of coral reefs has been regarded, 

 justly, as Darwin's especial contribution to geology. It has been 

 opposed strenuously by careful students during the last twenty years 

 and even now it is a bone of contention ; but the most strenuous oppo- 

 nent concedes that it is logical and a fair induction from the facts as 

 then known. Be it true or not, be it a competent explanation or not, 

 no matter. In influence on geology it has been as far-reaching as the 

 doctrine of natural selection has been on biology. It involves every 

 important problem in dynamics of the earth's crust; in testing it, men 

 have been led into paths of investigation, which, but for Darwin, might 

 still be untrodden. The influence went farther. The hypothesis was 

 presented at a time when men's minds were warped by prejudice, when 

 men were extremists, when too many were defenders of dogmas in sci- 

 ence and too few were searchers after truth. Darwin's discussion was a 

 model of frankness; suggestions offered by his predecessors were dealt 

 with courteously; he searched far and wide for objections to his own 

 suggestions, and when objections were found he stated them in detail, 

 concealing nothing and urging further investigation. His conclusions 

 were, for him, merely tabulations of observed facts. One can not over- 

 estimate the importance of this method ; it was a chief factor in chang- 



