48 De Vi Physica 



posed to have done. It was the Vestiges 

 which first laid the axe to the tree, which 

 cut at the root, and decisively determined 

 the fall, of the old traditionary * creation by 

 fiat' and sowed in the public mind the seed 

 of evolutionary ideas. After Chambers and 

 his Vestiges, the real work was done : he 

 showed the way. " When the diamond pin" 

 says Kalidas, "has made the hole, even the 

 cotton thread can get through" Chambers 

 was the pin. He bored a hole in the wall, 

 and light broke into the dense darkness of 

 the early Victorian era. The rest was only 

 a question of time. And, moreover, though 

 he was not a professional man of science, 

 which is one reason why the men of science 

 first opposed and pooh-poohed him, and 

 subsequently passed him over in favour of 

 one of their own fraternity; and though his 

 book exhibited a certain amiable enthu- 

 siasm that led him to countenance rash 



