66 EVOL U TION A ND DOGMA . 



not made the slightest impression on my mind. 

 Until the facts of nature are shown to have 

 been mistaken by those who have collected them, 

 and that they have a different meaning from that 

 now generally assigned to them, I shall therefore 

 consider the transmutation theory as a scientific mis- 

 take, untrue in its facts, unscientific in its method, 

 and mischievous in its tendency." 1 



But in spite of the storm of criticism which the 

 work provoked, it was not long until the great ma- 

 jority of naturalists had executed a complete volte- 

 face in their attitude towards Darwinism. If they 

 were not willing to go to the same lengths as the 

 author of " The Origin of Species," or hesitated about 

 conceding the importance which he attached to nat- 

 ural selection as an explanation of organic Evolution, 

 they were, at least, willing to admit that he had 

 supplied them with the working hypothesis which 

 they were seeking. 



Upon these, says Huxley, it had the effect " of 

 the flash of light, which to a man who has lost him- 

 self in a dark night, suddenly reveals a road, which, 

 whether it take him straight home or not, certainly 

 goes his way." What naturalists were then looking 

 for " 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 act- 

 ually at work." " The facts of variability," contin- 

 ues Huxley, "of the struggle for existence, of adap- 

 tation to conditions, were notorious enough ; but 



1 Quoted by Huxley in the " I 

 Darwin," by his son, vol. I., p. 538. 



Life and Letters of Charles 



