260 THE SPREAD OF EVOLUTION. [Ch. XIY. 



G. Lyell, vol. ii. p. 384), " I said I had been forced to give up my 

 old faith without thoroughly seeing my way to a new one. But 

 I think you would have been satisfied with the length I went." 



Lyell's acceptance of Evolution was made public in the tenth 

 edition of the Principles, published in 1867 and 1868. It was a 

 sign of improvement, " a great triumph," as my father called it, 

 that an evolutionary article by Wallace, dealing with Lyell's 

 book, should have appeared in the Quarterly Beview (April, 

 1869). Mr. Wallace wrote :— 



" The history of science hardly presents so striking an 

 instance of youthfulness of mind in advanced life as is shown 

 by this abandonment of opinions so long held and so powerfully 

 advocated ; and if we bear in mind the extreme caution, com- 

 bined with the ardent love of truth which characterise every 

 work which our author has produced, we shall be convinced 

 that so great a change was not decided on without long and 

 anxious deliberation, and that the views now adopted must 

 indeed be supported by arguments of overwhelming force. If 

 for no other reason than that Sir Charles Lyell in his tenth 

 edition has adopted it, the theory of Mr. Darwin deserves an 

 attentive and respectful consideration from every earnest seeker 

 after truth." 



The incident of the Copley Medal is interesting as giving an 

 index of the state of the scientific mind at the time. 



My father wrote: "some of the old members of the 

 Eoyal are quite shocked at my having the Copley." In 

 the Header, December 3, 1864, General Sabine's presidential 

 address at the Anniversary Meeting is reported at some 

 length. Special weight was laid on my father's work in 

 Geology, Zoology, and Botany, but the Origin of Species was 

 praised chiefly as containing a " mass of observations," &c. It 

 is curious that as in the case of his election to the French 

 Institute, so in this case, he was honoured not for the great 

 work of his life, but for his less important work in special 

 lines. 



I believe I am right in saying that no little dissatisfaction 

 at the President's manner of allusion to the Origin was felt by 

 some Fellows of the Society. 



My father spoke justly when he said that the subject was 

 * safe in foreign lands." In telling Lyell of the progress of 

 opinion, he wrote (March, 1863) : — 



a A first-rate German naturalist * (I now forget the name 1 ), 

 who has lately published a grand folio, has spoken out to the 



* No doubt Haeckel. whose monograph on the Radiolaria wag pub- 

 lished in 1862. 



