DARWIN 143 



egg from which the truth will gradually develop ; 

 the pupa from which the long-sought natural law 

 will emerge. And he concludes : ^' The chief 

 defect of the Darwinian theory is that it throws 

 no light on the origin of the primitive organism — 

 probably a simple cell — from which all the others 

 have descended. When Darwin assumes a special 

 creative act for this first species, he is not con- 

 sistent and, I think, not quite sincere. However, 

 apart from these and other defects, Darwin's 

 theory has the undying merit of bringing sense 

 and reason into the whole subject of the relations 

 of living things. When we remember how every 

 great reform, every important advance, meets with 

 a resistance in proportion to the depth of the 

 prejudices and dogmas it assails, we shall not be 

 surprised that Darwin's able theory has as yet met 

 with little but hostility instead of its well-merited 

 appreciation and test." There is yet no question 

 of man and his origin. But what he says is very 

 bold for the time ; and before a year is out we 

 shall find him drawing the most dangerous con- 

 clusion of all. And it is found, not in a late page 

 and note in a stout technical volume, but in 

 the pitiless glare of the sunlight, in the most 

 prominent position that could then be given to it 

 in German scientific culture. 



