SCIENCE AND THE THOUGHT OF THE WORLD 



stone, brought down with it an arch of connected beliefs 

 resting on long-cherished ideas and prejudices. What took 

 place was not merely the acceptance by mankind of new 

 opinions, but complete inversions of former beliefs involving 

 the rejection of views which had grown sacred by long 

 inheritance. 



I need scarcely say that I am speaking of two scientific 

 discoveries, following each other at no great interval of ^^ 



time about the middle of the last century, and both due / 



mainly to the work of Fellows of the Society. The first 



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discovery was the evidence from geology for the great 



antiquity of the earth, as opposed to the all but universal 

 belief of the time, and then evidence for the great age of 

 man. The second discovery, of a not less revolutionary 

 import, was the doctrine of organic evolution by the 

 principle of natural selection, which brought about a 

 complete change of opinion as to the position of man him- 

 self in relation to Nature. 



If I speak strongly, it is because I lived through that 

 period, and my recollections are still vivid of the fierce fury 

 of the storm of opposition with which both these innova- 

 tions of thought were at first assailed. It seems to me 

 that these signal victories of new knowledge, gained by 

 experimental methods of research over views in which for 

 generations men's minds had been fast riveted by tradition 

 and authority, placed natural science, for the first time, in 

 its true position, as within its own sphere the absolute 



authority to which all must bow. Up to that time science 



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