Strength of Darwin's Position 



As knowledge grew, as facts accumulated, the 

 belief in evolution became more widespread. 

 Hutton, Lyell, Spencer, and Huxley were all 

 convinced that evolution had occurred, but they 

 could not explain how it had occurred. 



Thus, by the middle of last century, all that 

 was needed to make evolution an article of 

 scientific belief was the discovery of a method 

 whereby it could be effected. This Darwin and 

 Wallace were able to furnish in the shape of 

 the theory of natural selection. The discovery 

 was made independently, but Darwin being the 

 older man, the more influential, and the one who 

 had gone the more deeply and carefully into the 

 matter, gained the lion's share of the credit of 

 the discovery. The theory of natural selection 

 is universally known as the Darwinian theory, 

 notwithstanding the fact that Darwin, unlike 

 Wallace, always recognised that natural selection 

 is not the sole determining factor in organic 

 evolution. 



From the moment of the enunciation of his 

 great hypothesis, Darwin's position was an 

 exceedingly strong one. Everything was in 

 his favour. 



As we have seen, the theory was enunciated 

 at the psychological moment, at the time when 

 zoological science was ripe for it. Most of the 

 leading zoologists were evolutionists at heart, 

 and were only too ready to accept any theory 



3 



