HUXLEY AND NATURAL SELECTION. 18-^ 



Its value for Huxley was that it was " incomparably 

 more probable than the creation hypothesis " ; that 

 it was " a hypothesis respecting the origin of known 

 organic forms, which assumed the operation of no 

 causes but such as could be proved to be actually at 

 work"; that it provided "clear and definite con- 

 ceptions which could be brought face to face with 

 facts and have their validity tested " ; that it freed 

 us "for ever from the dilemma — refuse to accept 

 the creation hypothesis, and what have you to pro- 

 pose that can be accepted by any cautious reasoner ? " 

 Indeed, the hypothesis did away with this dilemma, 

 even if it were itself to disappear; for "if we had 

 none of us been able to discern the paramount 

 significance of some of the most patent and notorious 

 of natural facts, until they were, so to speak, thrust 

 under our noses, what force remained in the dilemma 

 — creation or nothing ? It was obvious that, here- 

 after, the probability would be immensely greater, 

 that the links of natural causation were hidden from 

 our purblind eyes, than that natural causation should 

 be incompetent to produce all the phenomena 

 of nature." 



Therefore, " the only rational course for those who 

 had no other object than the attainment of truth, 

 was to accept ' Darwinism ' as a working hypothesis, 

 and see what could be made of it." Furthermore, 

 " Whatever may be the ultimate fate of the particular 

 theory put forth by Darwin, ... all the ingenuity 

 and all the learning of hostile critics has not enabled 



