DARWIN 143 



egg from which the truth will gradually develop ; 

 the pupa from which the long-sought natural law 



' will emerge. And he concludes : " The chief 

 defect of the Darwinian theory is that it throws 

 no light on the origin of the primitive organism 

 probably a simple cell from which all the others 

 have descended. When Darwin assumes a special 

 creative act for this first species, he is not con- 

 sistent and, I think, not quite sincere. However, 

 apart from these and other defects, Darwin's 

 theory has the undying merit of bringing sense 

 and reason into the whole subject of the relations 



! of living things. When we remember how every 

 great reform, every important advance, meets with 

 a resistance in proportion to the depth of the 



; prejudices and dogmas it assails, we shall not be 

 surprised that Darwin's able theory has as yet met 

 with little but hostility instead of its well-merited 

 appreciation and test." There is yet no question 

 of man and his origin. But what he says is very 

 bold for the time ; and before a year is out we 

 shall find him drawing the most dangerous con- 

 clusion of all. And it is found, not in a late page 

 and note in a stout technical volume, but in 

 the pitiless glare of the sunlight, in the most 

 prominent position that could then be given to it 

 in German scientific culture. 



