212 SCIENCE AND THE HUMAN MIND 



i8th, 1858, he received from Alfred Russel Wallace a 

 paper, written in Ternate in the space of three days 

 after reading Malthus' book. In this paper Darwin at 

 once recognized his own theory set forth in its essence. 

 Unwilling to seize the priority of twenty years, which 

 was rightly his but might destroy the interest of 

 Wallace's contribution, Darwin placed himself in the 

 hands of Lyell and Hooker, who arranged with the 

 Linnaean Society to communicate on July ist, 1858, 

 Wallace's paper together with a letter from Darwin 

 to Asa Gray dated 1857, and an abstract of his 

 theory written in 1844. 



Darwin then set to work and wrote out in condensed 

 form the results of his labours of twenty years, and on 

 November 24th, 1859, this book was published under 

 the name of The Origin of Species. 



We have already traced the various converging 

 streams of thought cosmological, anatomical, geo- 



The Fight logical and philosophic, which, blocked by 

 for Evolution, the evidence in favour of the fixity of 

 species, were yet collecting deeper and ever deeper 

 behind it. Darwin's great contribution to know- 

 ledge, driven forward by the quickening force of the 

 conception of natural selection, broke the barrier 

 with irresistible power, and set loose the fertilizing 

 torrent over all the realms of science and of human 

 thought. 



At first the stream seemed to many people a devas- 

 tating flood, obscuring without reason the whole out- 

 look of the human race ; but we should not condemn 

 without consideration the attitude of those to whom 

 the new knowledge appeared impious and distasteful. 



