THE DARWINIAN REVOLUTION BEGINS 115 



tremendous earthquake. Long predestined, it was yet 

 wholly unexpected. Men at large had known nothing or 

 next to nothing of this colossal but hidden revolutionary 

 force which had been gathering head and energy for so 

 many years unseen within the bowels of the earth ; and 

 now that its outer manifestation had actually burst 

 upon them, they felt the solid ground of dogmatic 

 security bodily giving way beneath their feet, and knew 

 not where to turn in their extremity for support. 

 Naturally, it was the theological interest that felt itself 

 at first most forcibly assailed. The first few chapters of 

 Genesis, or rather the belief in their scientific and his- 

 torical character, already sapped by the revelations of 

 geology, seemed to orthodox defenders to be fatally 

 undermined if the Darwinian hypothesis were once 

 to meet with general recognition. The first resource 

 of menaced orthodoxy is always to deny the alleged 

 facts ; the second is to patch up tardily the feeble 

 and hollow modus vivendi of an artificial pact. On 

 this occasion the orthodox acted strictly after their 

 kind : but to their credit it should be added that they 

 yielded gracefully in the long run to the unanimous 

 voice of scientific opinion. Twenty-three years later, 

 when all that was mortal of Charles Darwin was being 

 borne with pomp and pageantry to its last resting- 

 place in Westminster Abbey, enlightened orthodoxy, 

 with generous oblivion, ratified a truce over the dead 

 body of the great leader, and, outgrowing its original 

 dread of naturalistic interpretations, accepted his theory 

 without reserve as ' not necessarily hostile to the main 

 fundamental truths of religion.' Let us render justice 

 to the vanquished in a memorable struggle. Churchmen 



