THE BELFAST ADDRESS 185 



Newton for nearly twenty years kept the idea of Gravita- 

 tion before his mind; for twenty years also he dwelt upon 

 his discovery of Fluxions, and doubtless would have con- 

 tinued to make it the object of his private thought, had 

 he not found Leibnitz upon his track. Darwin for two- 

 and- twenty years pondered the problem of the origin of 

 species, and doubtless he would have continued to do so 

 had he not found Wallace upon his track. 1 A concen- 

 trated, but full and powerful, epitome of his labors was 

 the consequence. The book was by no means an easy 

 one; and probably not one in every score of those who 

 then attacked it, had read its pages through, or were com- 

 petent to grasp their significance if they had. I do not 

 say this merely to discredit them : for there were in those 

 days some really eminent scientific men, entirely raised 

 above the heat of popular prejudice, and willing to accept 

 any conclusion that science had to offer, provided it was 

 duly backed by fact and argument, who entirely mistook 

 Mr. Darwin's views. In fact, the work needed an ex- 

 pounder, and it found one in Mr. Huxley. I know noth- 

 ing more admirable in the way of scientific exposition than 

 those early articles of his on the origin of species. He 

 swept the curve of discussion through the really signifi- 

 cant points of the subject, enriched his exposition with 

 profound original remarks and reflections, often summing 

 up in a single pithy sentence an argument which a less 

 compact mind would have spread over pages. But there 

 is one impression made by the book itself which no ex- 

 position of it, however luminous, can convey; and that 



1 The behavior of Mr. Wallace in relation to this subject has been dignified 

 in the highest degree. 



