24 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES n 



prejudice, to the fair and thoughtful essay of the 

 candid student of Nature, have appeared, that it 

 seems an almost hopeless task to attempt to say 

 anything new upon the question. 



But it may be doubted if the knowledge and 

 acumen of prejudged scientific opponents, and the 

 subtlety of orthodox special pleaders, have yet 

 exerted their full force in mystifying the real issues 

 of the great controversy which has been set afoot, 

 and whose end is hardly likely to be seen by this 

 generation ; so that, at this eleventh hour, and even 

 failing anything new, it may be useful to state 

 afresh that which is true, and to put the funda- 

 mental positions advocated by Mr. Darwin in such 

 a form that they may be grasped by those whose 

 special studies lie in other directions. And the 

 adoption of this course may be the more advisable, 

 because, notwithstanding its great deserts, and 

 indeed partly on account of them, the " Origin of 

 Species " is by no means an easy book to read if 

 by reading is implied the full comprehension of an 

 author's meaning. 



We do not speak jestingly in saying that it is 

 Mr. Darwin's misfortune to know more about the 

 question he has taken up than any man living. 

 Personally and practically exercised in zoology, in 

 minute anatomy, in geology ; a student of geogra- 

 phical distribution, not on maps and in museums 

 only, but by long voyages and laborious collection ; 

 having largely advanced each of these branches of 



