216 MAMMALIAN DESCENT. [LECT. IX. 



are ever going on, conquering and to conquer. And 

 the more mystical and inward sort of thinkers are 

 becoming more and more indebted to the men who like 

 to have things plain and above board, men who stick to 

 facts and phenomena. I much question whether there 

 is a single modern work of any worth on any subject 

 whatever, on mind or matter, that is not the better for 

 what Charles Darwin and his helpers and interpreters 

 have done. As there were kings before Agamemnon, 

 so there were biologists before Charles Darwin. A 

 century ago, his own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, had 

 begun to break the yoke and burst the bonds that bent 

 and bound the minds of men. To Goethe, however, 

 must be attributed the honour of being the father of all 

 those who treat of Morphology and Development. 



When the eyes of the prophet's servant were opened, 

 he saw no longer barren rocks with mist resting upon 

 them, but the whole mountain was full of chariots of 

 fire, and horses of fire. The vestments and ritual of 

 nature may take up all the attention, and use up all 

 the energies of her votaries ; these superficial observers 

 fail, however, to find the real religion of nature the 

 beautiful but awful omnipresence which every flower 

 and every insect reveals. The phenomena of nature are 

 all mere fading pageants, and the really cultivated mind 

 only finds lasting satisfaction in meditation upon the 

 recognisable forces that underlie all sensible appear- 

 ances. 



