14 WAR & STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 



but it was not until Darwin's theory of natural selec- 

 tion provided a reasonable explanation as to how 

 evolution might have come about, that they actually 

 did accept it, and, turning to the stores of fact that 

 were already within their knowledge, arranged the 

 evidence that had been lurking unseen. Darwin 

 brought forward, in favour of the occurrence of evo- 

 lution, a body of evidence better arranged and more 

 convincing than had ever been presented before, but, 

 in Huxley's own words, it was "the theory of 

 natural selection that was the actual flash of light/' 

 the illuminating idea that at once made evolution 

 credible and encouraged others to search for evidence 

 in support of it. Hence it came about that the word 

 " Darwinism " was applied both to evolution and to 

 natural selection. The vast body of work that has 

 been accomplished since 1859 under the influence 

 and stimulus of Darwin has convinced us of the fact 

 of organic evolution. Evolution has been accepted 

 as scientific law, as the mode of organic progress, 

 and because the acceptation came through Darwin 

 and through Darwin's natural selection, evolution 

 and natural selection are confused as Darwinism, and 

 the dignity of scientific law is extended from evolu- 

 tion to natural selection. 



It was not the opinion of Huxley that natural 

 selection was a scientific law, and Huxley was Dar- 

 win's chief defender and the most ardent protagonist 

 of evolution. No man was more fully in Darwin's 

 confidence, and no man played a greater part in the 

 triumph of Darwinism. And yet from 1859 to the 

 end of his life, he was consistent in regarding natural 

 selection as no more than an illuminating and 



