• COSMIC PHILOSOPHY, [n, n. 



and for some minutes, he tells us, his thoughts were quite at 

 a standstill. 



The anecdote well illustrates the immeasurable superiority 

 of Goethe over Comte in prophetic insight into the bearings 

 of the chief scientific question of the immediate future. 

 While Comte was superciliously setting aside the problem of 

 man's origin, as a problem not only insoluble but utteily devoid 

 of philosophic value even if it could be solved, the great 

 German poet and philosopher was welcoming the outbreak 

 of this famous contest on questions of pure morphology, as 

 conducive to the speedy triumph of the development theory, 

 for which he himself had so long been waging battle. But 

 events were hastening that triumph even more rapidly than 

 Goethe could have anticipated. In December 1831, only a 

 few weeks before Goethe was laid in the grave, Mr. Darwin 

 set out upon that voyage around the world, in the course of 

 which he fell in with the facts which suggested his theory of 

 the origin of species. The history of the investigation is a 

 memorable one, — worth noting for the illustration it gives 

 of the habits of a truly scientific mind. On his return to 

 England, in 1837, Mr. Darwin began patiently to collect all 

 kinds of facts which might be of use in the solution of the 

 problem, — " how is organic evolution caused ? " It was only 

 after seven years of unremitting labour that he went so far 

 as to commit to manuscript a brief sketch of his general 

 conclusions, of which the main points were communicated to 

 his friends Sir Charles Lyell and Dr. Hooker. A less wise 

 and sober speculator than Mr, Darwin would now at once 

 have rushed into print. A thinker less thoroughly imbued 

 with the true scientific spirit would probably have suffered 

 from not publishing his views, and profiting by the adverse 

 criticisms of contemporary observers. It is a striking illus- 

 tration of Mr. Darwin's patience and self-restraint that he 

 continued fifteen years longer to work assiduously in testing 

 the weak and strong points of his theory, before presenting 



