536 ON THE RECEPTION OF 



zoological and geological investigations had long given him 

 an assured position among the most eminent and original 

 investigators of the day ; while his charming ' Voyage of a 

 Naturalist ' had justly earned him a wide-spread reputation 

 among the general public. I doubt if there was any man 

 then living who had a better right to expect that anything 

 he might choose to say on such a question as the Origin of 

 Species would be listened to with profound attention, and 

 discussed with respect ; and there was certainly no man whose 

 I personal character should have afforded a better safeguard 

 against attacks, instinct with malignity and spiced with shame- 

 less impertinences. 



Yet such was the portion of one of the kindest and truest 

 men that it was ever my good fortune to know ; and years 

 had to pass away before misrepresentation, ridicule, and de- 

 nunciation, ceased to be the most notable constituents of the 

 majority of the multitudinous criticisms of his work which 

 poured from the press. I am loth to rake any of these an- 

 cient scandals from their well-deserved oblivion ; but I must 

 Imake good a statement which may seem overcharged to the 

 [present generation, and there is no piece justificative more apt 

 ' for the purpose, or more worthy of such dishonour, than the 

 article in the ^ Quarterly Review ' for July, i860.* Since 

 Lord Brougham assailed Dr. Young, the world has seen no 

 such specimen of the insolence of a shallow pretender to a 

 i Master in Science as this remarkable production, in which 

 one of the most exact of observers, most cautious of reason- 

 ers, and most candid of expositors, of this or any other age, 

 is held up to scorn as a " flighty " person, who endeavours 

 " to prop up his utterly rotten fabric of guess and speculation," 



* I was not aware when I wrote these passages that the authorship of 

 the article had been publicly acknowledged. Confession unaccompariied 

 by penitence, however, affords no ground for mitigation of judgment; and 

 the kindliness with which Mr. Darwin speaks of his assailant. Bishop Wil- 

 berforce (vol. ii. p. 125), is so striking an exemplification of his singular 

 gentleness and modesty, that it rather increases one's indignation against 

 the presumption of his critic. 



