IV MODERN E VOL UTION 1 49 



humanity), and it will therefore remain the same in 

 substance. But the form in which that doctrine will 

 be presented must change with man's intellectual en- 

 vironment. The bearing of Evolution on Christian 

 doctrine is, therefore, in a word, to modify, not the 

 doctrine, but the form in which it is expressed.' 



Postponing the story of the famous debate between 

 Wilberforce and Huxley, the reception accorded to 

 the Origin of Species by Darwin's scientific con- 

 temporaries may be noted. Herbert Spencer's 

 position, as will be shown later on, was already 

 distinctive : he was an Evolutionist before Darwin. 

 Hooker, Huxley, who said that he was prepared to 

 go to the stake, if needs be, in support of some parts 

 of the book, Bates, and Lubbock were immediate 

 converts ; so were Asa Gray and Lyell, but with 

 reservations, for Lyell, whose creed was Unitarian, 

 never wholly accepted the inclusion of man, ' body 

 soul, and spirit/ as the outcome of natural selection. 

 Henslow and Pictet went one mile, but refused to go 

 twain ; Agassiz, Murray, and Harvey would have none 

 of the new heresy ; neither would Adam Sedgwick, 

 who wrote a long protest to Darwin, couched in loving 

 terms, and ending with the hope that ' we shall meet 

 in heaven/ The attitude of Owen, if apparently 

 neutral or tentative in open conversation, was, as an 

 anonymous critic, deadly hostile. Although it is not 

 included in the list of his writings given in the Life by 

 his grandson, he is known to have been the author of 

 the critique on the Origin of Species in the Edinburgh 

 Review of April 1 860. 



At the outset of the article he speaks of Darwin's 

 c seduction ' of ' several, perhaps the majority of our 



