ON THE GENETIC VIKW OF NATUliK. 



!35 



out of doors only from curiosity, and in searcli (jf new 

 specimens, prompted by the love of travel and adven- 

 ture, or as companions to commercial and colonising ex- 

 peditions, they are now forced to do so, because one of 

 the greatest agencies in nature — " the struggle for ex- 

 istence " — can only be studied in nature herself. Before 

 Darwin the study of nature was artificial ; through his 

 influence it has become natural. From the point of 

 view of the history of thought, this is surely a much 

 greater result than any of the several theories or special 

 arguments which are connected \\ith liis name. These 

 are indeed numerous, each making, as it were, a dis- 

 tinctly new departure in scientific reasoning, character- 

 ised by that unmistakable sign ' of all that is really 

 novel in the realm of thought, the creation of a new 

 vocabulary of distinct terms and phrases. A'arieties 

 were known to liotanists before Dai'win, but whd studied 

 " variation " and " variability " ? or who spoke of the 

 " divergence of character " ? Breeders of stock and 

 pigeon -fanciers knew what "selection" meant, but the 



' The late Hewett Cottrell 

 Watson, authur of the ' Cj'bele 

 Britannica" — one of a most valuable 

 series of works on the topography 

 and goograi)hical distribution of 

 the plants of the British Islands — 

 wrote to Darwin shortly after the 

 publication of the ' Origin of 

 Species,' 2l8t November 1859 : 

 " 1 am tempted to write you the 

 first impressions, not doubting that 

 they will, in the main, be the 

 permanent impressions. Your lead- 

 ing idea will assuredly become 

 recognised as an established truth 

 in science — i.e., 'Natural Selection.' 

 It has the characteristics of all 

 great natural truths, clarifying 



what was obscure, simplifying what 

 was intricate, adding greatly to 

 previous knowledge. You arc the 

 gi-eatest revolutionist in natural 

 history of this century, if not of 

 all centuries. . . . Now these 

 novel views are brought fairly be- 

 fore the scientific public, it seems 

 truly remarkable how so many of 

 them could have failed to see their 

 right road sooner. How could >Sir 

 C. Lyell, for instance, for thirty 

 years read, write, and think on the 

 subject of species and their succes- 

 sion, and yet constantly look down 

 the wrong road?" ('Life of Dar- 

 win,' vol. i. p. 352, and vol. ii. p. 

 226.) 



