THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



wearied by thinking and grew to be dissatisfied with 

 his proofs. It is not unlikely that he would never have 

 brought himself to the point of giving his theory to 

 the world if he had not been first urged to do so by 

 Hooker and then had been practically compelled 

 to write the Origin of Species, which was only an 

 abstract of the much larger work he had contem- 

 plated, lest he should lose priority because of Wal- 

 lace's essay. And when the great controversy broke 

 out and he became the centre of the battle, he stood 

 aside dazed by the bitterness of the argument which 

 he had not in the least anticipated. 



Constitutionally unwilling and unable to attack or 

 to meet attack, he writes incessantly to others to en- 

 list their help. Most of all, he hopes Lyell will lend 

 his support and is full of joy when that is attained, 

 but he is much chagrined and complains that Lyell is 

 hurting the cause when he does not give unqualified 

 assent. He looks upon Haeckel as a vast help, but 

 begs him not to be rash lest he excite opponents to 

 anger. He regards Huxley as his ever-valiant and 

 ever-ready swordsman. When troubles arise he invari- 

 ably stands aside and urges him on to fight. Although 

 Darwin was naturally a just man, when Mivart drew 

 up a paper pointing out the chief objections to the 

 theory of natural selection, he answered them to the 

 best of his ability in the second edition of the Origin. 

 Mivart had foreseen most of the scientific objections 



