The Making of Species 



facts in support of his hypothesis. He enunciated 

 no crude theory, he indulged in no wild specula- 

 tions. He was content to marshal a great array 

 of facts, and to draw logical conclusions there- 

 from. He was as cautious in his deductions as 

 he was careful of his facts. He thus stood head 

 and shoulders above the biologists of his day. 

 He was a giant among pigmies. So well 

 equipped was he that those who attempted to 

 oppose him found themselves in the position of 

 men, armed with bows and arrows, who seek 

 to storm a fortress defended by maxim guns. 



Nor was this all. The majority of the best 

 biologists of his time did not attempt to oppose 

 him. They were, as we have seen, ready to 

 receive with open arms any hypothesis which 

 seemed to explain how evolution had occurred. 

 Some of them perceived that there were weak 

 points in the Darwinian theory, but they pre- 

 ferred not to expose these ; they were rather 

 disposed to make the best of the hypothesis. It 

 had so many merits that it seemed to them but 

 reasonable to suppose that subsequent investiga- 

 tion would prove that the defects were apparent 

 rather than real. 



We hear much of the " magnitude of the 

 prejudices " which Darwin had to overcome, and 

 of the mighty battle which Darwin and his 

 lieutenant Huxley had to fight before the theory 

 of the origin of species by natural selection 



6 



