50 WHAT IS DARWINISM? 



to man, Wallace himself, — are either opposed 

 to it in great measure, or else give it but a 

 qualified assent. Thus, it has been the fate of 

 all theories of the development of living things 

 to lapse into oblivion. Evolution itself, how- 

 ever, will stand the same." ^ We find in the 

 " Transactions of the Victoria Institute," a still 

 more decided repudiation of Darwinism on the 

 part of Mr. Henslow. He there says : " I do 

 not believe in Darwin's theory ; and have en- 

 deavored to refute it by showing its utter im- 

 possibility." ^ He defines Evolution by saying, 

 " It supposes all animals and plants that exist 

 now, or have ever existed, to have been pro- 

 duced through laws of generation from preex- 

 isting animals and plants respectively ; that 

 afiinit}^ amongst organic beings implies, or is 

 due to community of descent ; and that the 

 degree of afiinity between organisms is in pro- 

 portion to their nearness of generation, or, at 

 least, to the persistence of common characters, 

 they being the products of originally the same 

 parentage." ^ A man, therefore, may be an 



^ The Theory of Evolution of Living Things and the Applica- 

 tion of the Principles of Evolution to Religion. By Rev. George 

 Henslow, M. A., F. L. S., F. G. S. London, 1873, pp. 27, 28. 



2 Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute, or Philo- 

 sophical Society of Great Britain. Vol. iv. London, 1870, p. 278. 



* Evolution and Religion, p. 29. 



