io6 Specific Genesis 



well prepared for, and well disposed towards, evolution years 

 before the appearance of The Origin of Species. 



Biological facts, by their gradual accumulation, had long 

 been predisposing scientific minds to the acceptance of this 

 theory. I myself, indeed, fully accepted it, and I found that 

 a similar acceptance existed in the minds of others, notably 

 in that of Professor Owen. Mr. Wright, therefore, is certainly 

 correct, in this sense, when he says that ' it is not to what is 

 now known as "Darwinism" that the prevalence of the 

 doctrine of evolution is to be attributed or indirectly 

 assigned.' The part of Mr. Darwin's theory which is old is 

 that which attributes so much importance to the destructive 

 powers of nature, a view advocated by Lucretius and treated 

 of by Aristotle in the passage quoted in my book. 



What, however, was unquestionably Mr. Darwin's own, 

 was the remarkable conception that this exterminating 

 power, acting upon organisms presenting slight variations, so 

 overbore all other influences as to occasion the survival of 

 the fittest variations, and in this way (by a process of cutting 

 off and limiting) fixed the characters of the different organic 

 species, thus becoming their origin. The origin, not, of 

 course, of the slight variations, but of the fixing of these in 

 definite lines and grooves. 



Gradually, however, the arguments of opponents have 

 forced upon Mr. Darwin's active and candid mind modifica- 

 tions of his views, till, as I have said, he has come to admit 

 in principle that Natural Selection is not the origin of species. 

 I cannot myself see that there is, in this change of view, 

 anything at all derogatory to Mr. Darwin ; and for my part, 

 my esteem for that illustrious naturalist is strengthened 

 rather than weakened when I read candid admissions of 

 antecedent error. These admissions should not be brought 

 forward, save when an unscientific appeal is made to his 

 authority, or when an advocate more zealous than judi- 



