DARWIN 327 



Charles Darwin (1809-1882) 



It is impossible in the brief limits of these 

 outlines^ to give Darwin his true relief, that is, in 

 proportion to his actual work and influence as 

 compared with his predecessors, and it is diffi- 

 cult to say anything about him which has not 

 been as well or better said before. We can, how- 

 ever, ask two questions which connect him with 

 this history and which can be brought into a 

 stronger hght than has been done hitherto. First, 

 how much did Darwin owe to the evolutionists 

 who went before him? Second, what was the 

 course of his own changing opinion upon the 

 causes of Evolution? 



As to the first, he owed far more to the past 

 than is generally believed, or than he himself was 

 conscious of, especially to the full and true con- 

 ception of the evolution idea which had already 

 been reached, to the nature of its evidences, and, 

 to some extent, to the nature of its causes. Al- 

 though anticipated by others, Darwin conceived, 

 and worked out, the theory of natural selection. 

 What he owed to no one came from his genius 

 as an observer and from his wonderful applica- 

 tion of the inductive method of search after nat- 

 ural laws. Like Lamarck alone, among all his 



iSee also Impressions of Great Naturalists, vol. II of Biolog- 

 ical Series. 



