144 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



no less than those who dispute their validity, have naturally 

 sought opportunities of expressing their opinions. Hence 

 it is not surprising that almost all the critical journals 

 have noticed Mr. Darwin's work at greater or less length ; 

 nnd so many disquisitions, of every degree of excellence, 

 from the poor product of ignorance, too often stimulated 

 by prejudice, to the fair and thoughtful essay of the candid 

 student of Nature, have appeared, that it seems an almost 

 helpless task to attempt to say anything new upon the 

 question. 



But it may be doubted if the knowledge and acumen of 

 prejudged scientific opponents, or the subtlety of orthodox 

 special pleaders, have yet exerted then- full force in mystify- 

 ing 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 eleveth hour, and even failing 

 anything new, it may be useful to state afresh that which is 

 true, and to put the fundamental 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. 



\Ve 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 geographical distribution, not on maps and in 

 museums only, but by long voyages and laborious collection ; 

 having largely advanced each of these branches of science, 

 and having spent many years in gathering and sifting 

 materials for his present work, the store of accurately 

 registered facts upon which the author of the Origin of 

 Species is able to draw at will is prodigious. 



But this very superabundance of matter must have been 

 embarrassing to a writer who, for the present, can only put 

 forward an abstract of his views ; and thence it arises, 

 perhaps, that notwithstanding the clearness of the style, 

 those who attempt fairly to digest the book find much of 

 it a sort of intellectual pemmican a mass of facts crushed 

 and pounded into shape, rather than held together by the 

 ordinary medium of an obvious logical bond : due attention 



