CHAPTEK II. 



EVOLUTIONISM AND DARWINISM. 



A generation has passed away since 1859, when 

 Charles Darwin, then a man of fifty, published his 

 epoch-making work on the &quot; Origin of Species.&quot; 

 The reception of the book by the public was an 

 augury of the influence it was destined to exert. 

 The first edition was exhausted almost immedi 

 ately, and a second edition was out six weeks 

 after the first. This was followed by others ; and 

 as the wave thus set a-going reached the Conti 

 nent, translations of the volume soon appeared 

 in most of the languages of Europe. The book 

 has had a wider influence, has stirred men s 

 thoughts and feelings more profoundly, and ex 

 ercised their attention more arduously, and even 

 painfully, than any other scientific work since 

 1543, when Copernicus demonstrated, to the con 

 sternation of mankind, the revolution of the earth 

 and laid the foundation of modern astronomy. 

 Darwin s treatise has not only become the classic 



