142 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. CHAP. xm. 



But what is the state of educated literary and scien- 

 tific opinion at the present day? Evolution is now uni- 

 versally accepted as a demonstrated principle, and not 

 one single writer of the slightest eminence, that I am 

 aware of, declares his disbelief in it. This is, of course, 

 partly due to the colossal work of Herbert Spencer; but 

 for one reader of his works there are probably ten of 

 Darwin's, and the establishment of the theory of the 

 " origin of Species by Means of ISTatural Selection " is 

 wholly Darwin's work. That book, together with those 

 which succeeded it, has so firmly established the doctrine 

 of progressive development of species by the ordinary 

 processes of multiplication and variation that there is 

 now, I believe, scarcely a single living naturalist who 

 doubts it. What was a " great heresy " to Sir John 

 Herschel in 1845, and " the mystery of mysteries " down 

 to the date of Darwin's book, is now the common knowl- 

 edge of every clever schoolboy, and of everyone who 

 reads even the newspapers. The only thing discussed 

 now is, not the fact of evolution, that is admitted, but 

 merely whether or no the causes alleged by Darwin are 

 themselves sufficient to explain evolution of species, or 

 require to be supplemented by other causes, known or 

 unknown. Probably so complete a change of educated 

 opinion, on a question of such vast difficulty and com- 

 plexity, was never before effected in so short a time. It 

 not only places the name of Darwin on a level with that 

 of Newton, but his work will always be considered as one 

 of the* greatest, if not the very greatest, of the scientific 

 achievements of the nineteenth century, rich as that cen- 

 tury has been in great discoveries in every department 

 of physical science. 



