12 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [CHAP. 



Such is the Darwinian theory of "Natural Selection," 

 such are the more remarkable facts which it is potent to 

 explain, and such is the reception it has met with in the 

 world. A few words now as to the reasons for the very 

 wide-spread interest it has awakened, and the keenness 

 with which the theory has been both advocated and 

 combated. 



The important bearing it has on such an extensive range 

 of scientific facts, its utility, and the vast knowledge and 

 great ingenuity .of its promulgator, are enough to account 

 for the heartiness of its reception by those learned in 

 natural history. But quite other causes have concurred to 

 produce the general and higher degree of interest felt in 

 the theory beside the readiness with which it harmonizes 

 with biological facts. These latter could only be appre- 

 ciated by physiologists, zoologists, and botanists ; whereas 

 the Darwinian theory, so novel and so startling, has found 

 a cloud of advocates and opponents beyond and outside 

 the world of physical science. 



In the first place, it was inevitable that very many half- 

 educated men and shallow thinkers should accept with 

 eagerness the theory of " Natural Selection," or rather 

 what they think to be such (for few things are more 

 remarkable than the manner in which it has been mis- 

 understood), on account of a certain characteristic it has 

 in common with other theories which should not be 

 mentioned in the same breath with it, except, as now, with 

 the accompaniment of protest and apology. We refer to 

 its remarkable simplicity and the ready way in which 

 phenomena the most complex appear explicable by a cause 

 for the comprehension of which laborious and persevering 

 efforts are not required, but which may be represented by 



