WHAT WE OWE TO DARWIN 37 



creatures have come to be, it has advanced to the 

 rank of a causal theory, the most convincing part 

 of which men will never cease to call Darwinism. 



In referring to Darwin's services, Huxley wrote : 

 " Whatever be the ultimate verdict of posterity 

 upon this or that opinion which Mr. Darwin pro- 

 pounded ; whatever adumbrations or anticipations 

 of his doctrines may be found in the writings of 

 his predecessors ; the broad fact remains that, 

 since the publication, and by reason of the publica- 

 tion, of ' The Origin of Species ' the fundamental 

 conceptions and the aims of students of living 

 nature have been completely changed. . . . But 

 the impulse thus given to scientific thought rapidly 

 spread beyond the ordinarily recognised limits 

 of biology. Psychology, ethics, cosmology were 

 stirred to their foundations, and ' The Origin of 

 Species ' proved itself the fixed point which the 

 general doctrine needed in order to move the 

 world." 



CO-OPERATING INFLUENCES. To understand how 

 all this came about we must get beyond the person- 

 ality of Darwin. We must shake ourselves free 

 from all creationist appreciations of Darwin and 

 Darwinism ; we must recognise the services of 

 pioneers who helped to make the time ripe 

 notably, for instance, Robert Chambers, whose 

 work has seldom been adequately appreciated ; 

 we must inquire into the acceptance of evolutionary 

 conceptions in regard to other than biological 

 orders of facts ; we must realise how the growing 

 success of scientific interpretation along other 

 lines gave confidence to those who refused to 

 admit that there was any domain from which 

 science could be excluded as a trespasser ; we 



