228 THE COMING OF AGE OF vii 



sort of under-nurse, and thus came in for my share 

 of the storms which threatened the very life of 

 the young creature. For some years it was 

 undoubtedly warm work ; but considering how 

 exceedingly unpleasant the apparition of the new- 

 comer must have been to those who did not fall in 

 love with him at first sight, I think it is to the 

 credit of our age that the war was not fiercer, and 

 that the more bitter and unscrupulous forms of 

 opposition died away as soon as they did. 



I speak of this period as of something past and 

 gone, possessing merely an historical, I had almost 

 said an antiquarian interest. For, during the 

 second decade of the existence of the " Origin of 

 Species," opposition, though by no means dead, 

 assumed a different aspect. On the part of all 

 those who had any reason to respect themselves, 

 it assumed a thoroughly respectful character. By 

 this time, the dullest began to perceive that the 

 child was not likely to perish of any congenital 

 weakness or infantile disorder, but was growing 

 into a stalwart personage, upon whom mere goody 

 scoldings and threatenings with the birch-rod 

 were quite thrown away. 



In fact, those who have watched the progress of 

 science within the last ten years will bear me out 

 to the full, when I assert that there is no field of 

 biological inquiry in which the influence of the 

 " Origin of Species " is not traceable ; the foremost 

 men of science in every country are either avowed 



