THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES* 



MR. DARWIN'S long-standing and well-earned scientific 

 eminence probably renders him indifferent to that social 

 notoriety which passes by the name of success ; but if the 

 calm spirit of the philosopher have not yet wholly super- 

 seded the ambition and the vanity of the carnal man within 

 him, he must be well satisfied with the results of his venture 

 in publishing the Origin of Species. Overflowing the narrow 

 bounds of purely scientific circles, the " species question " 

 divides with Italy and the Volunteers the attention ol 

 general society. Everybody has read Mr. Darwin's book, 

 or, at least, has given an opinion upon its merits or de- 

 merits ; pietists, whether lay or ecclesiastic, decry it with 

 the mild railing which sounds so charitable ; bigots de- 

 nounce it with ignorant invective ; old ladies of both 

 sexes consider it a decidedly dangerous book, and even 

 savants, who have no better mud to throw, quote antiquated 

 writers to show that its author is no better than an ape 

 himself ; while every philosophical thinker hails it as a 

 veritable Whitworth gun in the armoury of liberalism ; 

 and all competent naturalists and physiologists, whatever 

 their opinions as to the ultimate fate of the doctrines put 

 forth, acknowledge that the work in which they are 

 embodied is a solid contribution to knowledge and in- 

 augurates a new epoch in natural history. 



Nor has the discussion of the subject been restrained 

 within the limits of conversation. When the public is 

 eager and interested, reviewers must minister to its wants ; 

 and the genuine litterateur is too much in the habit of 

 acquiring his knowledge from the book he judges as the 

 Abyssinian is said to provide himself with steaks from the 

 ox which carries him to be withheld from criticism of a 

 profound scientific work by the mere want of the requisite 

 preliminary scientific acquirement ; while, on the other 

 hand, the men of science who wish well to the new views, 



* The Westminster Review, April I860. 

 143 



