i.] DARWINISM VERIFIED. 3 



to be determined in the main by theological or meta- 

 physical, and therefore not strictly relevant, objec- 

 tions. But it is not simply that the great body of 

 naturalists have accepted the Darwinian theory : it 

 has become part and parcel of their daily thoughts, 

 an element in every investigation which cannot be got 

 rid of. With a tacit consent that is almost unanimous, 

 the classificatory relations among plants and animals 

 have come to be recognised as representing degrees of 

 genetic kinship. One needs but to read constantly 

 such scientific journals as Nature, or to peer into 

 the proceedings of scientific societies, to see how 

 thoroughly all contemporary inquiry is permeated by 

 the conception of natural selection. The record of 

 research, whether in embryology, in palaeontology, or 

 in the study of the classification and distribution of 

 organised beings, has come to be the registration of 

 testimony in support of Mr. Darwin's hypothesis. 

 So deeply, indeed, has this mighty thinker impressed 

 his thoughts on the mind of the age that in order 

 fully to unfold the connotations of the word " Darwin- 

 ism " one could hardly stop short of making an index 

 to the entire recent literature of the organic sciences. 

 The sway of natural selection in biology is hardly 

 less complete than that of gravitation in astronomy ; 

 and thus it is probably true that no other scientific 



B 2 



