WHAT LED TO THE SUCCESS. 181 



not peculiar to any one theory of evolution, but belong 

 to all alike. Here, however, on the authority of Mr. 

 Huxley, an authority that cannot well be gainsaid, we 

 might object insufficient knowledge to Mr. Darwin on 

 every one of the above branches except the geological. 

 Mr. Huxley expressly names classification and embryology, 

 and where would homologies and rudimentary organs be 

 without anatomy, physiology, and development ? Besides, 

 we know that Mr. Huxley is far from being at one with 

 Mr. Darwin as regards hybridity ; and until the infer- 

 tility of hybrids can be confuted, one of the very 

 strongest arguments against natural selection cannot be 

 withdrawn. 



But, surely, with what is now before our eyes as 

 regards the compilation that the Origin is, we cannot 

 help specially applying to Mr. Darwin all that Mr. 

 Huxley says about " great danger," " large speculative 

 faculty," " temptation to deal," " truth relative to means 

 of observation and point of view," etc. It might not be 

 so very blameable here, indeed, to think once again of 

 Hearne the hunter, and even to laugh once again with 

 Mr. Darwin himself at compilers in general. 



Mr. Darwin, we saw, was of opinion that his book, 

 without Lyell's, Hooker's, Huxley's, and Carpenter's 

 say also Wallace's and Gray's aid, would have been " a 

 mere flash in the pan." When I look back on all that 

 we have been engaged upon for some time, will it lu> 

 thought very bad of me, if I confess to be almost a little 

 tempted to share in the same conviction ? Mr. Darwin 

 is certainly right when he exclaims (ii. 302), "I owe 

 much to my friends ! " And yet not one of these 

 friends, for all they said in his support, really understood 

 or believed in his doctrine absolutely ! Indeed we 

 may say it! It was not on the strength of natural 

 selection, as natural selection, but simply on that of 



