DARWIN 323 



a strong and fearless evolutionist, although he 

 had not apparently arrived at his subsequent se- 

 lection theory of the causes of change/ 



State of Opinion in the Mid-Century 



In all that has passed in these chapters the 

 anti-evolutionists have been kept in the back- 

 ground, yet they formed the great working ma- 

 jority in numbers and scientific influence. By 

 considering only the evolutionists we have wholly 

 lost the perspective of opinion in the mid-cen- 

 tury. This perspective must be regained in order 

 to appreciate the revolution of thought brought 

 about by Darwin. 



The very apologetic tone in which Darwin 

 himself confessed to Hooker, Lyell, and Gray, in 

 turn, his nascent belief in the mutability of spe- 

 cies, proves that he did not consider this evolu- 

 tionary belief as an enviable or altogether desir- 

 able possession. "I formerly spoke," Darwin 

 wrote, "to very many naturalists on the subject 

 of Evolution, and never once met with any sym- 

 pathetic agreement. It is probable that some did 

 then believe in Evolution, but they were either 

 silent or expressed themselves so ambiguously, 

 that it was not easy to understand their mean- 

 ing." Later, after the publication of the Origin, 

 Darwin longed to "convince Hooker, Lyell, and 



^See Osborn: Impressions of Great Naturalists. 



