April 28, 1882.] 



KNOWLEDGE * 



549 



It would be well if every one who desires to advance the 

 interests of science would bear in miud how our great 

 nturalist proceeded at this stage of his researches. "It 

 ■courred to me," he says, " that something might, perhaps, 

 l)e made out by patiently accumulating and reflecting on 

 all sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on 

 it.' Perhaps a few months might be thought no unsuitable 

 riod witliin which to arrange and systematise the ob- 

 ivations which were available for Darwin's purpose. 

 I'.ut no. " After five years' work," he saj's, " I allowed 

 myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up some short 

 notes. These I enlarged in l!?44 into a sketch of the con- 

 clusions which seemed to me probable." But even then he 

 ngarded his labours as only beginning. He was engaged 

 during many more yeai-s in steadily pursuing the great 

 object of his researches. Prevented by impaired health 

 from working continuously for any great length of time, he 

 returned again and again to his laliours, affording, as Dr. 

 I^nkester has weU remarked, " a notew orthy e.xaraple of 

 what difficulties may be overcome by untiring zeal, great 

 1 ■erseverance, and a remarkable amiability and kindness of 

 disposition." During the interval, too, which preceded the 

 publication of his '■ Opus Magnum," he published many 

 valuable contributions to scientific literature. Among 

 these may be specially mentioned liis " Monograph 

 of the Family Cirripedia " — that is of the class 

 of animals to which the familiar barnacles and sea 

 a.orns belong. It is strange now to find that this 

 ^^'lrk was spoken of in 18.")6 as that on which Darwin's 



■ * ure reputiition would lie founded. " His great work," 

 . s his biographer in that year, "and that on which his 

 i'Utation as a zoologist will doubtless depend, is his 



^lonograph on Cirripedia,' The excellent style, the great 



I I'lition made to the existing knowledge of the family to 



« hich it is directed, and the remarkable caution exercised 



1 y the author in coming to his conclusions, render this 



■rk a model of the manner in which such works should 



written." This was high praise, and praise Ijearing in a 



-j cially interesting manner on the estimate we are to form 



of that great work which was all this time in preparation. 



It is well to recognise that the chief characteristic of the 



I. an who has put forward the most daring biological theory 



: the present century was " remarkable caution in coming 



• ■ conclusions." 



In the year 1858, when the labours of Darwin on his 

 tlicory of the origin of species were as yet unfinished, 

 Mr. Wallace, who was then engaged in studying the 

 history of the Malayan Archipelago, sent him a memoir 



■ iiibodying the same general conclusions to which he had 



iiiself been led, and requested that he would forward it 



' Sir Charles Lyell. This memoir was published in the 



•liird volume of the "Journal of the Linniean Society." 



~-ir C. Lyell and Sir Joseph Hooker, both of whom knew of 



I 'arwin's work, suggested to him that it would be advisable 



' publish with Wallace's meu.oir some brief extracts from 



i> own manuscripts. This was accordingly done, and an 



stract — necessarily imperfect, Darwin said — of the 



' w theorj- of the origin of species by natural 



lection was published on November 24, 1859. It 



ill be in the recollection of most of our readers 



ith what a storm of mingled ridicule and indignation the 



iiw theory was received. Wild views spread on every 



hand as to its nature, and even those who had the means 



f mastering Darwin's reasoning joined in misrepresenting 



d ridiculing his doctrines. A considerable time elapsed 



tore the general public would consent to inform them- 



Ives as to the real nature of the theory which they had 



■ n all but unanimous in abusing. Yet of this self -same 



-iicory, Professor Hu.xley (who from the beginning was one 



of its most earnest, eloquent, and laborious advocates) said 

 ten years later before the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 

 that so rapidly had it established itself in favour, that he 

 began to think it would shortly require for its welfare a 

 little healthful opposition. This would not be the place to 

 discuss at length " the theory of natural selection (that is, of 

 the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for exist- 

 ence)." Presented briefly, it amounts to this, that during along 

 course of descent, species, not only of animals, but of plants, 

 are modified by the selective preservation of slightly varied 

 forms, adapted somewhat better than their fellows to the 

 circumstances in which tliey are placed. How far this 

 doctrine of the modification of species extends, even Darwin 

 himself has not claimed to assert with confidence ; but he 

 went very far. " I cannot doubt," he said, " that the 

 theory of descent, with modification, embraces all the 

 members of the same class. I believe that animals have 

 descended from at most only four or five progenitors, and 

 plants from an equal or lesser number." He looked for- 

 ward even farther, however. " Analogy would lead me 

 one step further," he said, " namely, to the belief 

 that all animals and plants have descended from sonie 

 one prototype ; l)ut this inference is chiefly grounded 

 on analogy, and it is immaterial whether or not it be 

 accepted. The case is different with the members of each 

 great class, as the Vertebrata, the Articulata, etc., for here 

 we have distinct evidence that all have descended from a 

 single parent." Daring as these views seem even now, it 

 is ditticult to recall how much more daring they were when 

 Darwin first propounded them. To a large proportion of 

 the naturalists of our day Darwin's theory seems almost 

 beyond question ; the young and rising naturalists in par- 

 ticular, of whom Darwin expected with confidence that 

 they would be able " to view both sides of the question 

 with impartiality," have justified his confidence ; but 

 when he announced his theory, there were not twenty 

 living men who were likely to receive it with favour. It 

 was in an especial manner on account of its supposed 

 bearing on religious questions that the Darwinian theory 

 when first propounded was repugnant to the feelings of 

 many conscientious men. Gradually, however, it was felt 

 that the new theory, rightly understood, tended to raise 

 instead of to degrade, as was alleged, our conceptions of 

 the scheme of creation. To quote the noble words with 

 which Darwin concluded his treatise : " From the war of 

 nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object 

 which we are capable of conceiving — namely, the produc- 

 tion of the higher animals, directly follows. There is 

 grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, 

 having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few 

 forms or into one : and that whilst this planet has gone 

 cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so 

 simple a beginning endless foi-ms most beautiful and most 

 wonderful have been and are being evolved." 



In the " Origin of Species " Darwin had not actually 

 expressed his views as to the ancestry of man, though he 

 had left them to be very clearly inferred. " It seemed to 

 me suflicient to indicate that by this work Might would be 

 thrown on the origin of n)an and his history,' " for this 

 implied that man " must be included with other organic 

 beings in any general conclusion respecting his manner of 

 appearance on this earth." But in the "Descent of Man" 

 Darwin dealt at length and boldly with that subject on which 

 he had hitherto deemed it well to be reticent He presented 

 man as co-descendant with the catarhine, or "down-nostrilled" 

 monkeys, from a hairy quadruped, furnished with a tail 

 and pointed ears, and probably a climber of trees. Nay 

 he traced back the chain of descent until he found, as tlie 

 progenitor of all the vertebrate animals, some aquatic 



