THE KINSHIP OF LIFE. 17 



Let me speak of certain traits of this work, the Ori- 

 gin of Species, which give it a position almost alone 



among books of science. There is in 

 The Origin o ^ nQ statement o f f act o f anv import- 



Species. . , 



ance which, during the nearly forty 



years since it was first published, has been shown to be 

 false. In its theoretical part there is no argument 

 which has been shown to be unfair or fallacious. In 

 these forty years no serious objection has been raised 

 to any important conclusion of his which was not at the 

 time fully anticipated and frankly met by him. Indeed, 

 there are but few of these objections which with our 

 present knowledge are not much less weighty than Dar- 

 win then admitted. The progress of science has bridged 

 over many chasms in the evidence. 



There is in this work nowhere a suggestion of special 

 pleading or of overstatement. The writer is a judge 

 and not an advocate, and from his decisions there has 

 been no successful appeal. There is in this or any other 

 of Darwin's works scarcely a line of controversial writ- 

 ing. He has been the faithful mirror of Nature. The 

 relations of Nature to metaphysics he has left to others. 

 The tornados which have blown about the Origin of 

 Species are not his work. He felt, perhaps, that most 

 systems of philosophy are like air plants which thrive 

 equally well in any soil ; with just facts enough for their 

 roots to cling to, they may grow and bloom perennially, 

 without other food than the air. 



The " Darwinian theory," as resulting from these 

 many years of gathering of facts, may be briefly stated 



as follows : The various species of ani- 

 The Darwinian 



the descendants of pre-existing forms 

 which have in various ways undergone modification. 

 The homologies existing among them are the result of 



