BEFORE DARWIN AND AFTER. 459 



sition; every sort of knowledge he seems to 

 have appropriated with an equal relish; he 

 swallowed all creation in his mind, omnivor- 

 ous to know. On the other hand we have to 

 note how limited, how dainty was Darwin's 

 appetite for intellectual acquisition; Classics, 

 Mathematics, Medicine, Theology, Art and 

 Poetry would not stay on his mental stomach. 

 Nature was his domain, yet only one nook of 

 it he passionately loved, the biological. The 

 Englishman was a specialist by birth, and 

 therein again belonged to his age, which is 

 so devoted to specialization. But the Greek 

 was all-embracing, all-ordering, all-knowing 

 in aspiration; he was born universal and an 

 universalizer. Individual he indeed was and 

 finite, yet he more than any other recorded 

 mortal bore this impress of the Universe it- 

 self in its highest process. The Pampsy- 

 chosis would seem to have stamped him with 

 its own image. 



The result was that Darwin became an ag- 

 nostic in reference to all spheres of knowledge 

 lying outside of his relatively limited horizon. 

 Still he spoke the epoch-making word of Evo- 

 lution within his province, where it was picked 

 up by others and borne far and wide, and is 

 still in the process of dissemination. Nor 

 should we forget that Aristotle was a chief 

 factor for centuries in molding both the Euro- 



