184 MR. DARWIN'S CRITICS v 



careful enumeration of all those points upon which, 

 during the course of thirteen years of incessant 

 labour, Mr. Darwin has modified his opinions. It 

 has often and justly been remarked, that what 

 strikes a candid student of Mr. Darwin's works is 

 not so much his industry, his knowledge, or even 

 the surprising fertility of his inventive genius ; 

 but that unswerving truthfulness and honesty 

 which never permit him to hide a weak place, or 

 gloss over a difficulty, but lead him, on all occa- 

 sions, to point out the weak places in his own 

 armour, and even sometimes, it appears to me, to 

 make admissions against himself which are quite 

 unnecessary. A critic who desires to attack Mr. 

 Darwin has only to read his works with a desire to 

 observe, not their merits, but their defects, and he 

 will find, ready to hand, more adverse suggestions 

 than are likely ever to have suggested themselves 

 to his own sharpness, without Mr. Darwin's self- 

 denying aid. 



Now this quality of scientific candour is not so 

 common that it needs to be discouraged ; and it 

 appears to me to deserve other treatment than 

 that adopted by the Quarterly Reviewer, who deals 

 with Mr. Darwin as an Old Bailey barrister deals 

 with a man against whom he wishes to obtain a 

 conviction, per fas aut nefas, and opens his case 

 by endeavouring to create a prejudice against the 

 prisoner in the minds of the jury. In his eager- 

 ness to carry out this laudable design, the Quarterly 



