The Descent of Man 3 



sily happen, from being repeatedly spoken of, and being 

 connected with celebrated and influential names, it is likely 

 to be taken for very much more than it is really worth. 



The necessity of caution in respect to this is clearly shown 

 by Mr. Darwin's present work, in which 'sexual selection,' 

 from being again and again referred to as if it had been 

 proved to be a vera causa, may readily be accepted as such 

 by the uninstructed or careless reader. For many persons, 

 at first violently opposed through ignorance or prejudice to 

 Mr. Darwin's views, are now, with scarcely less ignorance and 

 prejudice, as strongly inclined in their favour. 



Mr. Darwin's recent work, supplementing and completing, 

 as it does, his earlier publications, offers a good opportunity 

 for reviewing his whole position. We shall thus be better 

 able to estimate the value of his convictions regarding the 

 special subject of his present inquiry. We shall first call 

 attention to his earlier statements, in order that we may see 

 whether he has modified his views, and, if so, how far and 

 with what results. If he has, even by his own showing and 

 admission, been over-hasty and seriously mistaken pre- 

 viously, we must be the more careful how we commit our- 

 selves to his guidance now. We shall endeavour to show 

 that Mr. Darwin's convictions have undergone grave modi- 

 fications, and that the opinions adopted by him now are 

 quite distinct from, and even subversive of the views he 

 originally put forth. The assignment of the law of ' natural 

 selection ' to a subordinate position is virtually an abandon- 

 ment of the Darwinian theory; for the one distinguishing 

 feature of that theory was the all-sufficiency of 'natural 

 selection.' Not the less, however, ought we to feel grateful 

 to Mr. Darwin for bringing forward that theory, and for 

 forcing on men's minds, by his learning, acuteness, zeal, 

 perseverance, firmness, and candour, a recognition of the 

 probability, if not more, of evolution and of the certainty of 



