24: THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 1 
prejudice, to the fair and thoughtful essay of the 
candid student of Nature, have appeared, that it 
seems an almost hopeless task to attempt to say 
anything new upon the question. | 
But it may be doubted if the knowledge and 
acumen of prejudged scientific opponents, and the _ 
subtlety of orthodox special pleaders, have yet 
exerted their full force in mystifying the real issues 
of the great controversy which has been set afoot, 
and whose end is hardly likely to be seen by this 
generation ; so that, at this eleventh hour, and even 
failmg anything new, it may be useful to state 
afresh that which is true, and to put the funda- 
mental positions advocated by Mr. Darwin i in such 
a form that they may be grasped by those’ whose 
special studies lie in other directions. And the 
adoption of this course may be the more advisable, 
because, notwithstanding its great deserts, and 
indeed partly on account of them, the “ Origin of 
Species” is by no means an easy book to read—if 
by reading is implied the full comprehension of an 
author’s meaning. 
We do not speak jestingly in saying that it is 
Mr. Darwin’s misfortune to know more about the 
question he has taken up than any man living. 
Personally and practically exercised in zoology, in 
minute anatomy, in geology ; a student of geogra- 
phical distribution, not on maps and in museums 
only, but by long voyages and laborious collection ; 
having largely advanced each of these branches of 
