ix THE DEBT OF SCIENCE TO DARWIN 451 



authorities rank him far above the greatest names in natural 

 science above Linnaeus and Cuvier, the great teachers of a 

 past generation above De Candolle and Agassiz, Owen and 

 Huxley, in our own times. Many must feel inclined to ask, 

 What is the secret of this lofty pre-eminence so freely accorded 

 to a contemporary by his fellow-workers ? What has Darwin 

 done, that even those who most strongly oppose his theories 

 rarely suggest that he is overrated ? Why is it universally felt 

 that the only name with which his can be compared in the 

 whole domain of science is that of the illustrious Newton ? 



It will be my endeavour in the present chapter to answer 

 these questions, however imperfectly, by giving a connected 

 sketch of the work which Darwin did, the discoveries which 

 he made, the new fields of research which he opened up, the 

 new conceptions of nature which he has given us. Such a 

 sketch may help to clear away some of the obscurity which 

 undoubtedly prevails as to the cause and foundation of 

 Darwin's pre-eminence. 



In order to understand the vast and fundamental change 

 effected by the publication of Darwin's most important 

 volume The Origin of Species we must take a hasty glance 

 at the progress of the science of natural history during the 

 preceding century. 



The Century "before, Darwin 



Almost exactly a hundred years before Darwin we find 

 Linnaeus and his numerous disciples hard at work describing 

 and naming all animals and plants then discovered, and 

 classifying them according to the artificial method of the 

 great master, which is still known as the Linnaean System ; 

 and from that time to the present day a large proportion of 

 naturalists are fully occupied with this labour of describing 

 new species and new genera, and in classifying them 

 according to the improved and more natural systems which 

 have been gradually introduced. 



But another body of students have always been dis- 

 satisfied with this superficial mode of studying externals 

 only, and have devoted themselves to a minute examination 

 of the internal structure of animals and plants ; and early in 

 this century the great Cuvier showed how this knowledge of 



