320 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



25. 



Popular 

 influence. 



genetic aspect, which have since become familiar, were 

 very ably stated by scientific as well as by popular 

 writers. Earlier anticipations of the genetic view were 

 recalled, the historical sketch given in Lyell's ' Prin- 

 ciples ' was supplemented by reference to many great and 

 many forgotten authorities, who in more or less distinct 

 terms had given expression to their belief in a gradual 

 development of the existing forms and phenomena of 

 nature out of simpler beginnings, which they described 

 with more or less precision. It cannot be denied that 

 the enormous literature which accumulated during the 

 ten years following the publication of this book unsettled 

 the popular mind in this country, and prepared it for a 

 really able, dispassionate, and exhaustive exposition of 

 the whole subject, and especially of the crucial problem 

 to which it was narrowed down, the question regard- 

 ing the fixity or variability, the historical origin and 

 development or the sudden creation and persistence, of 

 animal and vegetable species. The genesis of the cosmos 

 as suggested by Laplace, the geological history of our 

 earth as worked out by Lyell, the fact of organic growth 

 and development as given by embryology, seemed clear 



(see ' Life of Darwin,' vol. i. p. 333), 

 gave probably the fairest verdict on 

 the book in the historical preface 

 to the later editions of his own 

 great work, where he says : " The 

 work, from its powerful and bril- 

 liant style, though displaying in the 

 earlier editions little accurate know- 

 ledge and a great want of scientific 

 caution, immediately had a very 

 wide circulation. In my opinion, it 

 has done excellent service in this 

 country in calling attention to the 

 subject, in removing prejudice, and 



in thus preparing the ground for 

 the reception of analogous views " 

 ('Origin of Species,' (5th ed., 1872 

 p. xvii). In a history of European 

 thought it is well to mention that 

 the ' Vestiges ' had no influence on 

 the Continent, for reasons partially 

 stated in the text. A little later, 

 however, a similar " scandale " (as 

 the ' Grande Encyclopedic ' has it 

 art. "R. Chambers and L. Biichner ") 

 arose in Germany on the publication 

 of ' Kraft und Stoff.' 



