THE SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS OF 1863 147 



the young, fresh, brilliant generation. It was an 

 opponent at this Congress, who sharply attacked 

 the new ideas, that spoke of the " colleague in 

 the freshness of youth " who had brought forward 

 the subject. He brought with him the highest 

 thing that a new idea can associate with : the 

 breath of a new generation, of a youth that greets 

 all new ideas with a smiling courage. Behind 

 this was the thought of Darwin himself, a wave 

 that swept away all dams. 



The speech was as clear as crystal, and is still 

 useful as an introduction to the Darwinian 

 question. He at once strikes the greatest and the 

 dominant note. Darwin means a new philosophy. 

 All organisms descend from a few primitive forms, 

 possibly from one ; and man is one of these 

 organisms. What Darwin had merely hinted in 

 his concluding passage, what the aged Bronn had 

 excluded altogether from his translation as too 

 dangerous, was now set forth emphatically in the 

 very beginning of his speech. "As regards man 

 himself, if we are consistent we must recognise 

 his immediate ancestors in ape-like mammals ; 

 earlier still in kangaroo-like marsupials ; beyond 

 these, in the secondary period, in lizard-like 

 reptiles ; and finally, at a yet earlier stage, the 

 primary period, in lowly organised fishes." 



There is something monumental in this passage, 

 as in the previous confession of Darwinism in the 

 Monograph on the Eadiolaria. Others may have 

 come to similar conclusions at the time on reading 

 Darwin's work. Here we have the profession 



