CHAELES E. DARWIN. 5 



doctrines. A considerable time elapsed before the 

 general public would consent to inform themselves as 

 to the real nature of the theory which they had been 

 all but unanimous in abusing. Yet of this self-same 

 theory, Professor Huxley (who, from the beginning, 

 was one of its most earnest, eloquent, and laborious 

 advocates) said ten years later before the Royal In- 

 stitution of Great Britain, that so rapidly had it 

 established itself in favour, that he began to think it 

 would shortly require for its welfare a little healthful 

 opposition. This would not be the place to discuss at 

 length " the theory of natural selection (that is, of 

 the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for 

 existence)." Presented briefly, it amounts to this, 

 that during a long course of descent, species, not only 

 of animals, but of plants, are modified by the selective 

 preservation of slightly varied forms, adapted some- 

 what better than their fellows to the circumstances in 

 which they are placed. How far this doctrine of the 

 modification of species extends, even Darwin himself 

 has not claimed to assert with confidence; but he 

 went very far. " I cannot doubt/' he said, " that the 

 theory of descent, with modification, embraces all the 

 members of the same class. I believe that animals 

 have descended from at most only four or five pro- 

 genitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number." 

 He looked forward even farther, however. ' ' Analogy 

 would lead me one step further," he said, " namely, 

 to the belief that all animals and plants have descended 

 from some one prototype ; but this inference is chiefly 



