224 LAY SERMONS, ESSAYS, AND REVIEWS. [xii. 



distribution, not on maps and in museums only, but by long 

 voyages and laborious collection ; having largely advanced each 

 of these branches of science, and having spent many years in 

 gathering and sifting materials for his present work, the store of 

 accurately registered facts upon which the author of the &quot; Origin 

 of Species &quot; is able to draw at will is prodigious. 



But this very superabundance of matter must have been 

 embarrassing to a writer who, for the present, can only put 

 forward an abstract of his views ; and thence it arises, perhaps, 

 that notwithstanding the clearness of the style, those who attempt 

 fairly to digest the book find much of it a sort of intellectual 

 pemmican a mass of facts crushed and pounded into shape, 

 rather than held together by the ordinary medium of an obvious 

 logical bond : due attention will, without doubt, discover this 

 bond, but it is often hard to find. 



Again, from sheer want of room, much has to be taken for 

 granted which might readily enough be proved ; and hence, while 

 the adept, who can supply the missing links in the evidence 

 from his own knowledge, discovers fresh proof of the singular 

 thoroughness with which all difficulties have been considered 

 and all unjustifiable suppositions avoided, at every reperusal of 

 Mr. Darwin s pregnant paragraphs, the novice in biology is apt 

 to complain of the frequency of what he fancies is gratuitous 

 assumption. 



Thus while it may be doubted if, for some years, any one is 

 likely to be competent to pronounce judgment on all the issues 

 raised by Mr. Darwin, there is assuredly abundant room for him, 

 who, assuming the humbler, though perhaps as useful, office of 

 an interpreter between the &quot; Origin of Species &quot; and the public, 

 contents himself with endeavouring to point out the nature of 

 the problems which it discusses ; to distinguish between the 

 ascertained facts and the theoretical views which it contains ; 

 and finally, to show the extent to which the explanation it offers 

 satisfies the requirements of scientific logic. At any rate, it is 

 this office which we purpose to undertake in the following pages. 



It may be safely assumed that our readers have a general 



