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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



CHARLES ROBERT DARWIY. 



THE present year will be memora- 

 ble in the history of science as 

 bringing to a close the labors of two 

 illustrious scientific thinkers one, per- 

 haps, the most eminent man of science 

 in America, Dr. John William Draper, 

 and the other probably the most cele- 

 brated scientific man of the world at 

 the present time, Dr. Charles Robert 

 Darwin. Both men had accomplished 

 their work, the former dying at the age 

 of seventy-one, and the latter at the 

 age of seventy-three ; and it is remarka- 

 ble that both were among the most dis- 

 tinguished representatives of the same 

 school of progressive scientific thought. 

 Their names will be for ever associated 

 with that great revolution of ideas for 

 which all modern science has prepared, 

 but which has been accomplished only 

 within the present generation. Both 

 men made large and important contri- 

 butions, by observation and experiment, 

 to the departments of science which 

 they respectively cultivated, but they 

 will be measured in future chiefly by 

 the bearing of their work upon the great 

 intellectual movement of the period. 



Everybody knows what we mean in 

 speaking of the movement of thought 

 with which the names of Draper and 

 Darwin are identified; and which we 

 have referred to as a revolution of 

 ideas already accomplished. One of its 

 leading aspects is the application of the 

 scientific method to the phenomena of 

 life in order to explain their changes 

 by natural causes. Mr. Darwin's name 

 has been so closely associated with this 

 extension of scientific method to cover 

 the origin of the diversities of living 

 beings upon earth that he has come to 

 be a representative of the idea ; while 

 the term " Darwinism " has been vague- 

 ly employed to stand for the doctrine. 



The twenty volumes of " The Popular 

 Science Monthly " bear uniform and 

 abundant record that " Darwinism " 

 has been generally accepted as true in 

 the world of science for the last ten 

 years. But there is a sharper test of 

 the change of opinion that has taken 

 place than any affirmation regarding 

 the verdicts of scientific men. At its 

 earliest promulgation "Darwinism " was 

 denounced by the whole body of relig- 

 ious authorities as false and execrable. 

 There was never such unanimity in the 

 pulpit as was displayed in cursing the 

 new apostle of the doctrine of man's 

 descent from an ancestry of inferior 

 animals. The devil got a considerable 

 respite while the batteries were all be- 

 ing turned upon Darwin as the arch- 

 enemy and subverter of all religion. 

 But, as the movement of ideas went on 

 all the same, common sense began to 

 assert itself in various quarters, so that 

 there has latterly been more temper- 

 ateness of condemnation, and even a 

 readiness to accept the long-detested 

 doctrine as probably true, and by no 

 means so bad as it at first seemed. And, 

 now that Darwin is dead, there is a 

 universal burst of admiration for the 

 man, accompanied by abundant admis- 

 sions that his ideas are true ; and he is 

 laid in Westminster Abbey alongside of 

 Newton, while the most eminent preach- 

 ers of London agree in declaring that 

 there has been nothing in his teaching 

 that is not wholly consistent with the 

 soundest Christian belief. Canon Lid- 

 don, of St. Paul's, author of " The Di- 

 vinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 

 Christ," is reported to have said in a 

 sermon that "Mr. Darwin's theories 

 are not necessarily hostile to the fun- 

 damental truths of religion"; and 

 Canon Barrv, author of " Orthodox 



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Commentaries on Portions of the Bi- 



