536 



ON THE RECEPTION OF 



zoological and geological investigations had long given him 

 an assured position among the most eminent and original 

 investigators of the day ; while his charming * Voyage of a 

 Naturalist ' had justly earned him a wide-spread reputation 

 among the general public. I doubt if there was any man 

 then living who had a better right to expect that anything 

 he might choose to say on such a question as the Origin of 

 Species would be listened to with profound attention, and 

 discussed with respect ; and there was certainly no man whose 

 personal character should have afforded a better safeguard 

 against attacks, instinct with malignity and spiced with shame- 

 less impertinences. 



Yet such was the portion of one of the kindest and truest 

 men that it was ever my good fortune to know ; and years 

 had to pass away before misrepresentation, ridicule, and de- 

 nunciation, ceased to be the most notable constituents of the 

 majority of the multitudinous criticisms of his work which 

 poured from the press. I am loth to rake any of these an- 

 cient scandals from their well-deserved oblivion ; but I must 

 make good a statement which may seem overcharged to the 

 present generation, and there is WQ pttct justificative more apt 

 for the purpose, or more worthy of such dishonour, than the 

 article in the ' Quarterly Review ' for July, 1860.* Since 

 Lord Brougham assailed Dr. Young, the world has seen no 

 such specimen of the insolence of a shallow pretender to a 

 Master in Science as this remarkable production, in which 

 one of the most exact of observers, most cautious of reason- 

 ers, and most candid of expositors, of this or any other age, 

 is held up to scorn as a " flighty " person, who endeavours 

 " to prop up his utterly rotten fabric of guess and speculation," 



* I was not aware when I wrote these passages that the authorship of 

 the article had been publicly acknowledged. Confession unaccompanied 

 by penitence, however, affords no ground for mitigation of judgment ; and 

 the kindliness with which Mr. Darwin speaks of his assailant, Bishop Wil- 

 berforce (vol. ii. p. 125), is so striking an exemplification of his singular 

 gentleness and modesty, that it rather increases one's indignation against 

 the presumption of his critic. 



