202 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION PART 



mining the formation of new protoplasm from such 

 matters as ammonium carbonates, oxalates, and 

 tartrates, alkaline and earthy phosphates, and water, 

 without the aid of light. That is the expectation 

 to which analogical reasoning leads me ; but I beg 

 you once more to recollect that I have no right to 

 call my opinion anything but an act of philosophical 

 faith/ 



Huxley was the Apostle Paul of the Darwinian 

 movement, and one main result of his active propa- 

 gandism was to so effectively prepare the way for 

 the reception of the profounder issues involved in 

 the theory of the origin of species, that the publica- 

 tion of Darwin's Descent of Man in 1871 created 

 mild excitement And the weight of his support is 

 the greater because he never omitted to lay stress on 

 the obscurity which still hides the causes of variation 

 which, it must be kept in mind, natural selection 

 cannot bring about, and on which it can only act. 

 He insists on the non-implication of the larger theory 

 with its subordinate parts, or with the fate of them. 

 The 'doctrine of Evolution is a generalisation of 

 certain facts which may be observed by any one 

 who will take the necessary trouble.' The facts 

 are those which biologists class under the heads of 

 Embryology and Palaeontology, to the conclusions 

 from which ' all future philosophical and theological 

 speculations will have to accommodate themselves.' 



That is the direction of the revolution to which the 

 publication of Man's Place in Nature gave impetus ; 

 and it is in the all-round application of the theory 

 of man's descent that Huxley stands foremost, both 

 as leader and lawgiver. Mr. Spencer has never 



