III. 



NATURAL SELECTION NOT INCONSISTENT WITH NATUEAL 



THEOLOGY. 



Atlantic Monthly foe July, August, and October, 1S60, reprinted in 1861. 



L 



Novelties are enticing to most people ; to us they 

 are simply annoying. We cling to a long-accepted 

 theory, just as we cling to an old suit of clothes. A 

 new theory, like a new pair of breeches (the Atlantic 

 still affects the older type of nether garment), is sure 

 to have hard-fitting places ; or, even when no particu- 

 lar fault can be found with the article, it oppresses 

 with a sense of general discomfort. "New notions and 

 new styles worry us, till we get well used to them, 

 which is only by slow degrees. 



Wherefore, in Galileo's time, we might have 

 helped to proscribe, or to burn — had he been stub- 

 born enough to warrant cremation — even the great 

 pioneer of inductive research; although, when we 

 had fairly recovered our composure, and had leisurely 

 excogitated the matter, we might have come to con- 

 clude that the new doctrine was better than the old 

 one, after all, at least for those who had nothing to 

 unlearn. 



Such being our habitual state of mind, it may well 



