DARWIN 329 



lifetime, to leap along over the progress of cen- 

 turies. The long retention of his theory from pub- 

 lication marks the contrast of his caution with 

 the impetuousness of Lamarck. He sought a hun- 

 dred facts and observations where his predeces- 

 sors had sought one ; his notes filled volumes, and 

 he stands out as the first evolutionist who worked 

 *upon true Baconian principles.' It was this char- 

 acteristic which, combined with his originality 

 and marvelous power of generalization, won the 

 battle for the evolution idea. 



As Canon Kingsley wrote to Maurice: "Dar- 

 win is conquering everywhere, and rushing in 

 like a flood by the mere force of truth and fact." 

 When his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, held 

 back at the inadequacy of his own theory to ex- 

 plain the origin of adaptation in color, he dis- 

 played the rare scientific temper which was 

 transmitted to the grandson. Krause has pointed 

 out, what is in fact most obvious, how largely the 

 thoughts and temperaments of these elder and 

 younger evolutionists of the same family ran in 

 parallel lines; they seemed to have inborn ten- 

 dencies to look at Nature in the same way. 



Another cause of Darwin's triumphant success 

 where all others had failed was his living at a 

 time when the storehouse of facts was fairly 

 bursting for want of a generalization; the prog- 

 ress in every branch of natural history since La- 



