156 CHARLES DARWIN. 



British Association at Oxford, he wrote to Hooker 

 (July 2nd, 1860) :— 



"I have read lately so many hostile views, that I was 

 beginning to think that perhaps I was wholly in the wrong, 



and that was right when he said the whole subject would 



be forgotten in ten years ; but now that I hear that you and 

 Huxley will fight publicly (which I am sure I never could 

 do), I fully believe that our cause will, in the long-run, 

 prevail." 



Looking at the history of opinion on this subject, 

 the slowness with which the new ideas were absorbed 

 appears remarkable. Even so able a man as the late 

 Professor Rolleston wrote in 1870 (" Forms of Animal 

 Life," Introduction, p. xxv., First Edition) the 

 following carefully guarded sentences, which, it is to 

 be noted, deal with evolution rather than natural 

 selection. Speaking of " the theory of evolution with 

 which Mr. Darwin's name is connected," Rolleston 

 says : — 



" Many of the peculiarities which attach to biological classi- 

 fications would thus receive a reasonable explanation ; but 

 where verification is, ex hypothesis impossible, such a theory 

 cannot be held to be advanced out of the region of probability. 

 The acceptance or rejection of the general theory wull depend, 

 as does the acceptance or rejection of other views supported 

 merely by probable evidence, upon the particular constitution 

 of each individual mind to which it is presented ! " 



It was too much to expect that many of the 

 older scientific men* would retain sufificient intellectual 

 flexibility to be able to recognise, as Lyell had, that 

 the facts of nature were explained and predicted 

 better by the new views than by those in which 



