IX 



THE DEBT OF SCIENCE TO DARWIN 1 



The Century before Darwin The Voyage of the Beagle The Journal of 

 Researches Studies of Domestic Animals Studies of Cultivated and 

 Wild Plants Researches on the Cowslip, Primrose, and Loosestrife 

 The Struggle for Existence Geographical Distribution and Dis- 

 persal of Organisms The Descent of Man and Later Works Estimate 

 of Darwin's Life- Work. 



THE great man recently taken from, us had achieved an 

 amount of reputation and honour perhaps never before 

 accorded to a contemporary writer on science. His name 

 has given a new word to several languages, and his genius is 

 acknowledged wherever civilisation ex'tends. Yet .the very 

 greatness of his fame, together with the number, variety, and 

 scientific importance of his works, has caused him to be 

 altogether misapprehended by the bulk of the reading public. 

 Every book of Darwin's has been reviewed or noticed in 

 almost every newspaper and periodical, while his theories 

 have been the subject of so much criticism and so much 

 dispute, that most educated persons have been able to obtain 

 some general notion of his teachings, often without having 

 read a single chapter of his works, and very few, indeed, 

 except professed students of science, have read the whole 

 series of them. It has been so easy to learn something of 

 the Darwinian theory at second-hand that few have cared 

 to study it as expounded by its author. 



It thus happens that, while Darwin's name and fame are 

 more widely known than in the case of any other modern 

 man of science, the real character and importance of the 

 work he did are as widely misunderstood. The best scientific 



1 This article appeared in the Century Magazine of January 1883. 



