EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



on Insectivorous Plants, on Cross and Self 

 Fertilization, on the Different Forms of Flow- 

 ers, and on the Formation of Vegetable Mould 

 through the Action of Worms, should be read 

 as models of sound scientific method by every 

 one who cares to learn what scientific method 

 is. They may be counted, too, among the 

 most entertaining books of science that have 

 ever been written ; and the points that have 

 been established in them, taken in connection 

 with Mr. Darwin's previous works, make up an 

 aggregate of scientific achievement such as has 

 rarely been equalled. 



It is fitting that in the great Abbey, where 

 rest the ashes of England's noblest heroes, the 

 place of the discoverer of natural selection should 

 be near that of Sir Isaac Newton. Since the 

 publication of the immortal " Principia," no 

 single scientific book has so widened the mental 

 horizon of mankind as the " Origin of Species." 

 Mr. Darwin, like Newton, was a very young 

 man when his great discovery suggested itself 

 to him. Like Newton, he waited many years 

 before publishing it to the world. Like New- 

 ton, he lived to see it become part and parcel 

 of the mental equipment of all men of science. 

 The theological objection urged against the 

 Newtonian theory by Leibnitz, that it substi- 

 tuted the action of natural causes for the imme- 

 diate action of the Deity, was also urged against 



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