THE QUARTERLY 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
APRIL, 1866. 
I. DARWIN AND HIS TEACHINGS. 
(Lllustrated.) 
Iv may seem strange to many thinking men, and to posterity it 
will doubtless appear inexplicable, that at this era in his history 
Man should still be obliged to approach with hesitation and reserve 
a subject so matter-of-fact as the Origin of Species, and that the 
publication of his views concerning his own animal nature and 
origin should always be accompanied by grave misgivings. But 
when we remember how few there are who can dissociate such 
inquiries from their religious creed, and with what reluctance such 
persons venture upon investigations that might have a tendency to 
shake the faith in which they have been educated ; when we con- 
sider that many professors of theology conceive it to be their duty 
to foster these misgivings on the part of their “ flocks,’ and to 
denounce men of science as instruments of the Evil one; then indeed 
it is not surprising that great courage should be needed for the exer- 
cise of unfettered thought and for the expression of what may be 
regarded as heterodox opinions. These checks upon the intellectual 
development of the human race, and this slow growth of free 
inquiry, are not, however, entirely without their advantages, nay, 
paradoxical as it may seem, they are in some degree essential to the 
steady progress of truth. The wisest men frequently err, and there 
are many who would have been thankful if an unfriendly critic had 
nipped some well-matured theory in the bud ; the enterprising and 
impetuous reformer stands in greatest need of controlling agencies 
and a:tverse judgments; and the masses would remain stagnant and 
uninfluenced by men of thought and observation if these were con- 
tinually pushing onward heedless of the difficulties and disdaining 
the shortcomings of the multitudes, whom they should seek to lead, 
and not to drive along the tortuous and thorny paths of discovery. 
Nothing, indeed, would be more unfortunate than if, at the present 
day, when man’s thoughts outstrip his power of locomotion, there 
should be too great leniency in the judgment of new dogmas, for 
VOL. III. M 
