THE BELFAST ADDRESS. 181 



Mr. Darwin shirks no difficulty ; and, saturated as 

 the subject was with his own thought, he must have 

 known, better than his critics, the weakness as well as 

 the strength of his theory. This of course would be of 

 little avail were his object a temporary dialectic victory, 

 instead of the establishment of a truth which he means 

 to be everlasting. But he takes no pains to disguise 

 the weakness he has discerned; nay, he takes every 

 pains to bring it into the strongest light. His vast 

 resources enable him to cope with objections started by 

 himself and others, so as to leave the tinal impression 

 upon the reader's mind that, if they be not completely 

 answered, they certainly are not fatal. Their negative 

 force being thus destroyed, you are free to be influenced 

 by the vast positive mass of evidence he is able to bring 

 before you. This largeness of knowledge, and readiness 

 of resource, render Mr. Darwin the most terrible of 

 antagonists. Accomplished naturalists have levelled 

 heavy and sustained criticisms against him not always 

 with the view of fairly weighing his theory, but with 

 the express intention of exposing its weak points only. 

 This does not irritate him. He treats every objection 

 with a soberness and thoroughness which even Bishop 

 Butler might be proud to imitate, surrounding each 

 fact with its appropriate detail, placing it in its proper 

 relations, and usually giving it a significance which, 

 as long as it was kept isolated, failed to appear. 

 This is done without a trace of ill-temper. He moves 

 over the subject with the passionless strength of a 

 glacier ; and the grinding of the rocks is not always 

 without a counterpart in the logical pulverisation of the 

 objector. But though in handling this mighty theme 

 all passion has been stilled, there is an emotion of the 

 intellect, incident to the discernment of new truth, 

 which often colours and warms the pages of Mr. Darwin. 



