WHAT WE OWE TO DARWIN 31 



to morals, to language, to art, to customs, to 

 religion. Even the evolution theory has had 

 its evolution, and is still, happily, being evolved. 



Of the wide diffusion of the evolutionary way 

 of looking at things which Darwin justified, we 

 give a single example, as a diagram as it were. 

 After the disaster of Koniggratz the Austrian 

 Parliament met to consider what steps should 

 be taken for the re-consolidation of the monarchy, 

 and a distinguished member of the Upper House 

 began a famous speech with the words, " The first 

 thing we have to consider is : Is Charles Darwin 

 right, or is he not ? " " and upon the Tightness of 

 Darwin's theory it was gravely proposed to re- 

 construct the Austrian monarchy." 1 



Darwin once expressed satisfaction that he 

 had not been permitted to become a " specialist " ; 

 it is hardly too much to say that there is no 

 specialism in natural science which he has left 

 unaffected by his influence. 



(VIII) IDEAL OF SCIENTIFIC MOOD AND METHOD. 

 What do we owe to Darwin ? An ideal of 

 the scientific mood and of scientific workmanship. 

 As it will be a long time before Science weeps, like 

 Alexander, having no more worlds to conquer, 

 perhaps this ideal is not the least of Darwin's 

 legacies. If we can follow Darwin in the spirit, 

 not necessarily in the letter, we shall not go far 

 astray. As Prof. T. H. Morgan finely says : 

 "It is the spirit of Darwinism, not its formulae, 

 that we proclaim as our best heritage." For 

 this reason, and because the scientific spirit is a 

 big fact in modern life, let us consider the features 



i See Sir Archibald Geikie's Speech at the Darwin-Wallace 

 Celebration, Linnean Society (July 1st, 1908), p. 53. 



