324 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



Huxley that species are mutable," and, in reply- 

 to Huxley's somewhat guarded acceptance of 

 his descent theory, he wrote that "like a good 

 Catholic who has received extreme unction, I can 

 now sing 'nunc dimiftis.' " Think now of con- 

 vincing this high priest of Evolution! 



In America, the great botanist Asa Gray was 

 one of the first to espouse Darwin's cause. In 

 France, which we have found to be the home of 

 the modern theory for nearly a century. Evolu- 

 tion came as an unwelcome returning exile. As 

 in England, opinion had finally become settled 

 upon the fixity of species. A proffered transla- 

 tion of the Origin was contemptuously rejected 

 by a publishing firm in Paris. Darwin craved an 

 open-minded audience, which was almost impos- 

 sible to find on the Continent. "Do you know of 

 any good and speculative foreigners to whom it 

 would be worth while to send my book?" he wrote 

 to Huxley. 



This is all by way of evidence of the well- 

 known fact that aU the progress which had been 

 made in the long centuries we have been consid- 

 ering was, for the time, a latent force. The evo- 

 lution idea, with the numerous truths which had 

 accumulated about it, was again almost wholly 

 subordinate to the special creation idea. 



