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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



er was wanted in a comprehensive sci- 

 entific field. It was his happy fortune 

 to avail himself of a previous advance 

 of biological inquiry, which was much 

 greater than is generally supposed. Mr. 

 Darwin has himself fully pointed out 

 to what various extents his idea of nat- 

 ural selection had been discerned by 

 preceding naturalists. It was a discov- 

 ery all ready to be made, and how in- 

 evitably it grew out of the state of 

 knowledge that had been attained, and 

 how imminent it was in the thought of 

 the time, is shown by the fact that he 

 was compelled to publish on the sub- 

 ject earlier than he had intended, to 

 prevent being anticipated by Mr. Alfred 

 Eussel "Wallace, who had already ar- 

 rived at and worked out the same prin- 

 ciple. It was fortunate for the fame of 

 Mr. Darwin that Mr. Wallace so grace- 

 fully and generously stepped aside, and 

 surrendered to him the full leadership 

 of the new biological reform. 



Nor is it to be forgotten, in enumer- 

 ating the causes that have conspired to 

 give such prominence to the name and 

 fame of Darwin, that his subject was 

 one of intense and universal interest. 

 No matter how unpalatable were the 

 theories proposed, everybody was con- 

 cerned with questions of the origin of 

 life, because they involved explanations 

 of human origin. Whence we came 

 has always been a riddle which there 

 has been an irrepressible curiosity to 

 solve. Mr. Darwin's explanation came 

 in the name of science, and, apparently 

 involving but a single principle of such 

 simplicity and familiar illustration that 

 everybody could understand it, his lit- 

 tle book was sought for and read with 

 avidity by all 'classes. And yet, in the 

 nature of things, it was impossible that 

 the work should be generally under- 

 stood with any thoroughness. It dealt 

 with an order of ideas for which our 

 higher education made no preparation, 

 so that the college graduate was little 

 better equipped than the uneducated 

 country farmer to read intelligently and 



appreciatingly the argument of the 

 " Origin of Species." There was, con- 

 sequently, a great deal of popular con- 

 fusion and misapprehension as to what 

 Mr. Darwin had really done, and which 

 naturally led to erroneous and even ex- 

 travagant claims as to the nature and 

 scope of his work. To those who were 

 not well instructed he came to be re- 

 garded as the creator of an epoch and 

 the originator of the whole scheme of 

 ideas connected with his investigations. 

 We see this in the tendency to attribute 

 to Mr. Darwin the fatherhood of the 

 law of evolution, and to identify evolu- 

 tion with Darwinism. He contributed 

 to that universal law a most important 

 principle, but he was neither its founder 

 nor did he ever attempt anything like 

 its general exposition. That great doc- 

 trine had been overwhelmingly proved, 

 had been resolved into its forces, for- 

 mulated, and extensively applied to 

 the reorganization of scientific knowl- 

 edge, before Mr. Darwin had ever 

 published a word upon the subject. 

 He has done noble work, and his posi- 

 tion is for ever assured among the 

 greatest in science ; and, if circum- 

 stances have tended to favor some ex- 

 aggeration of his real claims, we may 

 leave to time the correction of imper- 

 fect judgments, and the equitable award 

 of all honors among those to whom 

 honors are due. 



A VERY MODERN REPROACH. 



Commenting, two months ago, upon 

 Goldwin Smith's article attacking sci- 

 entific ethics, we pointed out the exten- 

 sive co-existence of supernatural beliefs 

 with a lax morality. The " Christian 

 Union," under the title of " A Very An- 

 cient Reproach," charges " The Popular 

 Science Review " with reviving a stale 

 old accusation of Thomas Paine. It, 

 moreover, attempts to confound us 

 with " History," and offers a quotation 

 from Gibbon, declaring that through 

 conversions by the early Church " the 



