18 JOURNAL OF THE [January, 



forth his too positive statements as to the results of his experi- 

 ments, Mr. Darwin seems to have been somewhat puzzled, 

 though still incredulous. Writing to Professor Wallace in 1872, 

 he said : " As for Rotifers and Tardigrades being spontaneously 

 generated, my mind can no more digest such statements, 

 whether true or false, than my stomach can digest a lump of 

 lead. Dr. Bastian is always comparing archebiosis, as well as 

 growth, to crystallization ; but, on this view, a Rotifer or Tardi- 

 grade is adapted to its humble conditions of life by a happy 

 accident, and this I cannot believe." Then he went on to 

 show that, like others, he saw the necessity of the sponta- 

 neous generation theory to the general theory of evolution, 

 but also to manifest the inherent honesty of his mind which 

 forbade his accepting the theory on purely a priori grounds ; 

 for he says : " I should like to live to see archebiosis 

 proved true, for it would be a discovery of transcendant 

 importance ; or, if false, I should like to see it disproved, 

 and the facts otherwise explained ; but I shall not live 

 to see all this." A year later he wrote in this same strain to 

 Professor Haeckel, to whom he was sending a " singular state- 

 ment bearing on so-called spontaneous generation," saying : "I 

 much wish that this latter question could be settled, but I see 

 no prospect of it. If it could be proved true this would be most 

 important to us." These seem to be the only instances in which 

 he referred to the subject. As I have already said, he did not, as 

 a general thing, concern himself with problems connected with 

 the origin of the living series. His special work with its latest 

 and highest products was enough to fully occupy his mind and 

 satisfy his spirit of inquiry. Nearly all the broadening and 

 elaborating of the evolution philosophy, which his own labors 

 made possible, was foreign to his intellectual habit and tempera- 

 ment, and he had frequent occasion to " groan " over 

 what he considered the impetuosity and rashness of 

 some of his more speculative friends. 



But Herbert Spencer is, in a sense, the commander-in-chief of 

 a philosophical army, in which Huxley, Tyndall, Haeckel, and 

 Wallace are division commanders. He recognizes his responsi- 

 bility for the coherency and effectiveness of the whole system, 

 and is obliged to have his eye first here and then there, with a 

 view to strengthening and consolidating at every point. As soon 



