2 DARWINISM VERIFIED. [i. 



physical force for the direct action of the Deity. In 

 France, where ideas not of French origin are very apt 

 to be but slowly apprehended, the opposition to the 

 Newtonian theory was not silenced till 1759, when 

 Clairaut and Lalande, by calculating the retardation 

 of Halley's comet, furnished such crucial proof as 

 could not possibly be overcome. At this time 

 Newton had been thirty-two years in his grave; 

 seventy-two years had elapsed since the publication 

 of the Principia, and ninety-four since the hypothesis 

 was first definitely conceived. 



In the present age, when the number of scientific 

 inquirers has greatly increased and the interchange 

 of thoughts has become rapid and constant, it takes 

 much less time for a new generalisation to make its 

 way into people's minds. It is now barely eighteen 

 years since Mr. Darwin's views on the origin of species 

 were announced in a book which purported to be 

 only the rough preliminary sketch of a greater work 

 in course of preparation. But, though greeted at the 

 beginning with ridicule and opprobrium, the theory 

 of natural selection has already won a complete and 

 overwhelming victory. One could count on one's 

 fingers the number of eminent naturalists who still 

 decline to adopt it, and the hesitancy of these appears 



