6 NATURE STUDIES. 



grounded on analogy, and it is immaterial whether or 

 not it be accepted. The case is different with the 

 members of each great class, as the Vertebrata, the 

 Articulata, &c., for here we have distinct evidence 

 that all have descended from a single parent." Daring 

 as these views seem even now, it is difficult to recall 

 how much more daring they were when Darwin first 

 propounded them. To a large proportion of the 

 naturalists of our day Darwin's theory seems almost 

 beyond question ; the young and rising naturalists in 

 particular, of whom Darwin expected with confidence 

 that they would be able " to view both sides of the 

 question with impartiality," have justified his confi- 

 dence ; but when he announced his theory, there were 

 not twenty living men who were likely to receive it 

 with favour. It was in an especial manner on account 

 of its supposed bearing on religious questions that 

 the Darwinian theory when first propounded was 

 repugnant to the feelings of many conscientious men. 

 Gradually, however, it was felt that the new theory, 

 rightly understood, tended to raise instead of to 

 degrade, as was alleged, our conceptions of the 

 scheme of creation. To quote the noble words with 

 which Darwin concluded his treatise: "From the 

 war of nature, from famine and death, the most 

 exalted object which we are capable of conceiving 

 namely, the production of the higher animals directly 

 follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with 

 its several powers, having been originally breathed by 

 the Creator into a few forms, or into one ; and that 



