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LITTLE 

 JOURNEYS 



in falsetto w^hen it was even mentioned. He wrote ot 

 Darw^in as " the apostle of dirt," and said, '' He thinks 

 his grandfather w^as a chimpanzee, and I suppose he 

 is right — leastw^ise I am not the one to deprive him of 

 the honor." 



Scathing criticisms were uttered on Darwin's ideas, 

 both on the platform and in print by Dr. Noah Porter 

 of Yale, Dr. Hodge of Princeton, and Dr. Tayler Lewis 

 of Union College. Agassiz, the man who was regarded 

 as the foremost scientist in America, thought he had 

 to choose betw^een orthodoxy and Darwinism, and he 

 chose orthodoxy. His gifted son tried to rescue his 

 father from the grip of prejudice, and later has endeav- 

 ored to free his name from the charge that he could 

 not change his mind, but alas! Louis Agassiz's w^ords 

 w^ere expressed in print, and widely circulated. 

 There were two men in America whose names stand 

 out like beacon-lights because they had the courage to 

 speak up loud and clear for Charles Darwin "while the 

 pack was baying the loudest. These men were Dr. Asa 

 Gray, who influenced the Appletons to publish an 

 American edition of *'The Origin of Species," and 

 Professor Edw^ard L. Youmans, w^ho gave up his own 

 brilliant lecture work in order that he might stand by 

 Darw^in, Spencer, Huxley and Wallace. 

 For the man ^vho was known as ** a Darwinian " there 

 was no place in the American Lyceum. Shut out from 

 addressing the public by w^ord of mouth, Youmans 

 founded a magazine that he might express himself, and 

 he fired a monthly broadside from his "Popular Science 

 186 



