228 DARWIN. 



Think now of convincing this high priest of Evo- 

 lution. In America, Asa Gray was one of the first 

 to espouse Darwin's cause. 



In France, which we have found to be the home 

 of the modern theory for nearly a century, Evolu- 

 tion came as an unwelcome returning exile. As 

 in England, opinion had finally become settled 

 upon the fixity of species. A proffered translation 

 of the Origin was contemptuously rejected by a 

 publishing firm in Paris. Darwin craved an open- 

 minded audience, which was almost impossible to 

 find on the Continent. " Do you know of any good 

 and speculative foreigners to whom it would be 

 worth while to send my book ? " he wrote to Huxley. 

 This is all by way of evidence of the well-known 

 fact that all the progress which had been made in 

 the long centuries we have been considering was, 

 for the time, a latent force. The Evolution idea, 

 with the numerous truths which had accumulated 

 about it, was again almost wholly subordinate to 

 the Special Creation idea. 



DARWIN. 



It is impossible to give Darwin his true relief in 

 the brief limits of these outlines, that is, in propor- 

 tion to his actual work and influence, as compared 

 with his predecessors, and it is difficult to say any- 

 thing about him which has not been better said be- 

 fore. We can, however, ask two questions which 



