INTRODUCTORY NOTE 7 



the month of previous March on character of South American 

 fossils, and species on Galapagos Archipelago. These facts 

 (especially latter) origin of all my views." Again, "In October 

 (1838), that vs fifteen months after I had begun my systematic 

 inquiry, I happened tr> read for amusement 'Malthus on Popu- 

 lation,' and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for 

 existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued ob- 

 servation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me 

 that under these circumstances favorable variations would tend 

 to be preserved, and unfavorable ones to be destroyed. The 

 result of this zvould be the formation of new species. Here 

 then I had at laist got a theory by which to work." 



From these statements by Darwin himself we can see how far 

 it is from being the case that he merely gathered the ripe fruit 

 of the labors of his predecessors. All progress is continuous, 

 and Darwin, like other men, built on the foundations laid by 

 others; but to say this is not to deny him originality in the only 

 vital -sense of that word. And the importance of his contribution 

 — in verifying the doctrine of descent, in interpreting and apply- 

 ing it, and in revealing its bearings on all departments of the 

 investigation of nature — is proved by the fact that his work 

 opened a new epoch in science and philosophy. As Huxley said, 

 "Whatever be the ultimate verdict of posterity upon this or that 

 opinion which Mr. Darwin has propounded; whatever adumbra- 

 tions or anticipations of his doctrines may be found in the writ- 

 ings of his predecessors ; the broad fact remains that, since the 

 publication and by reason of the publication of 'The Origin of 

 Species' the fundamental conceptions and the aims of the students 

 of living Nature have been completely changed." 



The present year (1909) has seen the celebration of the hun- 

 dredth anniversary of Darwin's birth and the fiftieth anniversary 

 of the publication of his great work. Among the numerous ex- 

 pressions of honor and gratitude which the world of science has 

 poured upon his memory, none is more significant than the vol- 

 ume on "Darwin and Modern Science" which has been issued by 

 the press of his old University of Cambridge. In this are col- 

 lected nearly thirty papers by the leaders of modern science 

 dealing with the influence of Darwin upon various fields of 

 thought and research, and with the later developments and modi- 

 fications of his conclusions. Biology, in many different depart- 



