780 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS. 



He saw what was coming however, au<^l in a hiter letter to Professor 

 Dana, anticipating the publication of the " Origin of Species,'- he says, 

 "You may be sure that before long there must be one more resurrection 

 of the development theory in a new form, obviating many of the argu- 

 ments against it, and presenting a more respectable and more formida- 

 ble appearance than it ever has before." 



Gray was one of the favored three, including Hooker and Lyell, to 

 whom Darwin sent advance sheets of the "Origin of Species" prior to 

 its publication in November, 1859; and of his review in the American 

 Journal of Science of the following March, Darwin wrote, "Your re- 

 view seems to me admirable, — by far the best I have read." The re- 

 view certainly presents most accurately, succinctly, and attractively 

 Darwin's own views ; but Gray does not even here announce that he 

 is himself a complete convert to the doctrine, as is seen by the follow- 

 ing citation : "What would happen if the derivation of species were to 

 be substantiated, either as a true physical theory or as a sufticieut 

 hypothesis f The inquiry is a pertinent one just now. For, of those 

 who agree with us in thinking that Darwin has not established his 

 theory of derivation, many will admit with us that he has rendered a 

 theory of derivation much less improbable than before; that such a 

 theory chimes in with the established doctrines of physical science, and 

 is not unlikely to be largely accepted long before it can be proved." 

 And the similar statement in the Atlantic Monthly of October, 18G0: 

 "Those, if any there be, who regard the derivative hypothesis as satis- 

 factorily proved must have loose notions of what proof is. Those who 

 imagine it can be easily refuted and cast aside must, we think, have 

 imperfect or very prejudiced conceptions of the facts concerned and of 

 the questions at issue." 



In 1876 he brought together in a volume, entitled " Darwiniana," his 

 principal essays and reviews pertaining to Darwinism, taken from the 

 American Journal of Science, the Nation, and the Atlantic Monthly, 

 and added a chapter on " Evolutionary Teleology ;" and in 1880 he 

 published " Natural Science and Religion," two lectures delivered to 

 the Theological School of Yale College, before a critical audience, who 

 listened with the deepest interest to what was, in some points, his 

 most advanced view of natural selection. We need not dwell on a 

 subject about which so much has lately been written by far abler pens 

 than ours. Briefly stated. Gray was probably the best expounder of 

 Darwinian principles — meaning thereby those actually advocated by 

 Darwin himself, and excluding the wild deductions attached to the 

 original theory by those who deserve the name of Darwinissimists 

 rather than Darwinists — although he himself regarded natural selec- 

 tion as a less efficient cause than it was assumed to be by Darwin. 



His influence as an exponent of Darwinism was due partly to the 

 admirable clearness and candor of his reviews and his interesting way 

 of putting things ; for his fertile imagination was constantly discovering 



