288 LESSONS FROM NATURE. [CHAP. IX. 



Mr. Darwin comes before them anew (as he does in his 

 Descent of Man ), with opinions and conclusions still more 

 startling, and calculated, in a yet greater degree, to disturb 

 convictions reposing upon the general consent of the majority 

 of cultivated men, we may well pause before we trust our 

 selves unreservedly to a guidance which thus again and again 

 declares its own reiterated fallibility. Mr. Darwin s con 

 clusions may be correct, but we feel we have now indeed a 

 light to demand that they shall be proved before we assent 

 to them ; and that since what Mr. Darwin before declared 

 * must be,&quot; he now admits not only to be unnecessary 

 but untrue, we may justly regard with extreme distrust 

 the multitude of his statements and calculations which 

 are recommended by a mere &quot; may be.&quot; This is the more 

 necessary, as the Author, starting at first with an avowed 

 hypothesis, constantly asserts it as an undoubted fact, 

 and claims for it, in the spirit of an evangelical preacher 

 rather than of a philosopher, that it should be received 

 as an article of faith though incapable of proof. Thus 

 the formidable objection to Mr. Darwin s theory, that the 

 great break in the organic chain between man and his 

 nearest allies, which cannot be bridged over by any extinct 

 or living species, is answered simply by an appeal &quot; to a 

 belief in the general principle of evolution &quot; (vol. i. p. 200), 

 or by a confident statement that &quot; we have every reason to 

 believe that breaks in the series are simply the result of many 

 forms having become extinct &quot; (vol. i. p. 187), though the 

 reasons are not given. So, in like manner, we are assured 

 that &quot; the early progenitors of man were, no doubt, once 

 covered with hair, both sexes having beards ; their ears 

 were pointed and capable of movement ; and their bodies 

 were provided with a tail, having the proper muscles.&quot; And, 

 finally, we are told, with a dogmatism little worthy of a 

 philosopher, that, &quot; unless we wilfully close our eyes&quot; we must 

 recognise our parentage (vol. i. p. 213). 



To criticisms such as the foregoing, as expressed in 

 Genesis of Species and in the Quarterly Review, Pro- 



