136 HOMO V. DARWIN. 



ample opportunity for testing them ; and had the develop- 

 ment hypothesis been based on fact, and supported by 

 observation and experience, it must long, ere now, in some 

 form or other, have found its way to the general belief of 

 mankind. Within a much shorter period 300 years instead 

 of 3,000 such theories as those of gravitation, the circula- 

 tion of the blood, the influence of the moon on the tides, 

 have established themselves in the convictions of all persons 

 of intelligence. No views put forth on Evolution, however, 

 have gained such acceptance, and the idea is entertained 

 only by some men of speculative mind, through the opera- 

 tion of tendencies characteristic of the present age. These 

 facts I take as, at least, primd facie evidence that the 

 basis of proof is not only insufficient, but unsatisfactory so 

 far as it goes. 



That Mr. Darwin's hypothesis rests on no stable basis is 

 shown, moreover, by the fact that he has himself, oftener 

 than once, shifted its supports. In his earlier works, 

 Natural Selection was the all-sufficient power by which 

 everything was accomplished. Through the wide field of 

 organized existence, from its origin, myriads of ages ago, 

 until now, Mr. Darwin could see no power in operation but 

 that of Natural Selection. Not only were Divine wisdom 

 and purpose unrecognized except, indeed, that God was 

 supposed to have at first " breathed life into a few forms 

 or into one " but all other laws and powers whatever were 

 put in abeyance. Natural Selection was the one presiding 

 Deity in the world of animated and organic existence. 



Mr. Darwin now acknowledges himself to have been 

 mistaken. " I probably attributed too much (he says) to 

 the action of Natural Si-1-rtion, or 'the survival of the 

 fittest;" and he, therefore, now brings in ''Sexual Selection," 

 with " the nature and constitution of the organism itself," 



