THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 



53S 



Even the theologians have almost ceased to pit the plain 

 meaning of Genesis against the no less plain meaning of 

 Nature. Their more candid, or more cautious, representatives 

 have given up dealing with Evolution as if it were a damnable 

 heresy, and have taken refuge in one of two courses. Either 

 they deny that Genesis was meant to teach scientific truth, 

 and thus save the veracity of the record at the expense of its 

 authority ; or they expend their energies in devising the cruel 

 ingenuities of the reconciler, and torture texts in the vain 

 hope of making them confess the creed of Science. But when 

 the peine forte et dure is over, the antique sincerity of the ven- 

 erable sufferer always reasserts itself. Genesis is honest to 

 the core, and professes to be no more than it is, a repository 

 of venerable traditions of unknown origin, claiming no scien- 

 tific authority and possessing none. 



As my pen finishes these passages, I can but be amused 

 to think what a terrible hubbub would have been made (in 

 truth was made) about any similar expressions of opinion a 

 quarter of a century ago. In fact, the contrast between the 

 present condition of public opinion upon the Darwinian ques- 

 tion ; between the estimation in which Darwin's views are 

 now held in the scientific world ; between the acquiescence, 

 or at least quiescence, of the theologians of the self-respecting 

 order at the present day and the outburst of antagonism on 

 all sides in 1858-9, when the new theory respecting the origin 

 of species first became known to the older generation to which 

 I belong, is so startling that, except for documentary evidence, 

 I should be sometimes inclined to think my memories dreams. 

 I have a great respect for the younger generation myself 

 (they can write our lives, and ravel out all our follies, if they 

 choose to take the trouble, by and by), and I should be glad 

 to be assured that the feeling is reciprocal ; but I am afraid 

 that the story of our dealings with Darwin may prove a great 

 hindrance to that veneration for our wisdom which I should 

 like them to display. We have not even the excuse that, 

 thirty years ago, Mr. Darwin was an obscure novice, who had 

 no claims on our attention. On the contrary, his remarkable 

 35 



