

^mMu 





CHAPTER VI 



HUXLEY AND DARWIN 



Early Ideas on Evolution — Erasmus Darwin — Lamarck — Her- 

 bert Spencer— Difference between Evolution and Natural 

 Selection — Huxley's Preparation for Evolution — The Nov- 

 elty of Natural Selection — The Advantage of Natural 

 Selection as a Working Hypothesis — Huxley's Unchanged 

 Position with regard to Evolution and Natural Selection 

 from i860 to 1S94. 



FROM our attempt to place together as much as 

 possible of Huxley's geological work in the last 

 chapter, it followed that we anticipated much that falls 

 properly within this chapter. The year 1859, the date 

 of publication of T/ie Origm of Species, is a momentous 

 date in the history of this century, as it was the 5'ear in 

 which there was giv^en to the world a theory that not 

 only revolutionised scientific opinion, but altered the 

 trend of almost every branch of thought. To under- 

 stand this great change, and the part played in it by 

 Huxley, it is necessary to be qtiite clear as to what 

 Darwin did. In the first place, he did not invent evo- 

 lution. The idea that all the varied structures in the 

 world, the divergent forms of rocks and minerals and 

 crystals, the innumerable trees and herbs that cover 

 the face of the earth like a mantle, and all the animal 



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