ON THE GENETIC VIEW OF NATURE. 



335 



out of doors only from curiosity, and in search of new 

 specimens, prompted by the love of travel and adven- 

 ture, or as companions to commercial and colonising ex- 

 peditions, they are now forced to do so, because one of 

 the greatest agencies in nature " the struggle for ex- 

 istence " can only be studied in nature herself. Before 

 Darwin the study of nature was artificial ; through his 

 influence it has become natural. From the point of 

 view of the history of thought, this is surely a much 

 greater result than any of the several theories or special 

 arguments which are connected with his name. These 

 are indeed numerous, each making, as it were, a dis- 

 tinctly new departure in scientific reasoning, character- 

 ised by that unmistakable sign l of all that is really 

 novel in the realm of thought, the creation of a new 

 vocabulary of distinct terms and phrases. Varieties 

 were known to botanists before Darwin, but who studied 

 " variation " and " variability " ? or who spoke of the 

 " divergence of character " ? Breeders of stock and 

 pigeon-fanciers knew what " selection " meant, but the 



1 The late Hewett Cottrell 

 Watson, author of the ' Cybele 

 Britannica' one of a most valuable 

 series of works on the topography 

 and geographical distribution of 

 the plants of the British Islands 

 wrote to Darwin shortly after the 

 publication of the ' Origin of 

 Species,' 21st November 1859 : 

 ' ' I am tempted to write you the 

 first impressions, not doubting that 

 they will, in the main, be the 

 permanent impressions. Your lead- 

 ing idea will assuredly become 

 recognised as an established truth 

 in science i.e., ' Natural Selection.' 

 It has the characteristics of all 

 great natural truths, clarifying 



what was obscure, simplifying what 

 was intricate, adding greatly to 

 previous knowledge. You are the 

 greatest revolutionist in natural 

 history of this century, if not of 

 all centuries. . . . Now these 

 novel views are brought fairly be- 

 fore the scientific public, it seems 

 truly remarkable how so many of 

 them could have failed to see their 

 right road sooner. How could Sir 

 C. Lyell, for instance, for thirty 

 years read, write, and think on the 

 subject of species and their succes- 

 sion, and yet constantly look down 

 the wrong road ? " ( ' Life of Dar- 

 win,' vol. i. p. 352, and vol. ii. p. 

 226.) 



