474 TROPICAL NATURE 



endeavoured, however imperfectly, to enable non- specialists 

 to judge of the character and extent of this work, and of the 

 vast revolution it has effected in our conception of nature, 

 a revolution altogether independent of the question whether 

 the theory of " natural selection " is or is not as important a 

 factor in bringing about changes of animal and vegetable 

 forms as its author maintained. Let us consider for a 

 moment the state of mind induced by the new theory and 

 that which preceded it. So long as men believed that every 

 species was the immediate handiwork of the Creator, and was 

 therefore absolutely perfect, they remained altogether blind 

 to the meaning of the countless variations and adaptations of 

 the parts and organs of plants and animals. They who were 

 always repeating, parrot-like, that every organism was exactly 

 adapted to its conditions and surroundings by an all -wise 

 being, were apparently dulled or incapacitated by this belief 

 from any inquiry into the inner meaning of what they saw 

 around them, and were content to pass over whole classes of 

 facts as inexplicable, and to ignore countless details of structure 

 under vague notions of a " general plan," or of variety and 

 beauty being " ends in themselves " ; while he whose teachings 

 were at first stigmatised as degrading or even atheistical, by 

 devoting to the varied phenomena of living things the loving, 

 patient, and reverent study of one who really had faith in the 

 beauty and harmony and perfection of creation, was enabled 

 to bring to light innumerable hidden adaptations, and to prove 

 that the most insignificant parts of the meanest living things 

 had a use and a purpose, were worthy of our earnest study, 

 and fitted to excite our highest and most intelligent admiration. 

 That he has done this is the sufficient answer to his critics 

 and to his few detractors. However much our knowledge of 

 nature may advance in the future, it will certainly be by 

 following in the pathways he has made clear for us ; and for 

 long years to come the name of Darwin will stand for the 

 typical example of what the student of nature ought to be. 

 And if we glance back over the whole domain of science, we 

 shall find none to stand beside him as equals ; for in him we 

 find a patient observation and collection of facts, as in Tycho 

 Brahe ; the power of using those facts in the determination of 

 laws, as in Kepler, combined with the inspirational genius of a 



