392 CHARLES DARWIN xxiv 



causes and methods by which all the wonders and all the 

 diversity, all the beauty yes, and all the deformity too which 

 we see around us in the life of animals and plants have been 

 brought about. 



Against our ignorance on these subjects his life was one 

 long battle, and in reading its history and seeing the gradual 

 development of his plan of operations, one is continually re- 

 minded of a great strategist directing a vast army spread over 

 a wide and varied field of operations ; now surveying the whole 

 at a glance, now pressing on his various forces wherever 

 an opening presents itself anywhere along the line, now 

 carefully scrutinising the weak and the strong points of every 

 position ; omitting no precaution where danger threatens, now 

 bringing one branch of the forces to bear, followed up and 

 supported, if need be, by others of a different kind, one after 

 another, in close and telling array; masses of facts, experiments, 

 observations, and arguments thrown in to stop a breach or 

 strengthen any menaced or wavering post, and all arranged, 

 grouped, marshalled, and handled with the skill and vigilance 

 with which a successful general handles a living army in the 

 conduct of a great and complicated campaign. 



To all this, most of the work which we others do is 

 but irregular, guerilla warfare, attacks on isolated points, 

 mere outpost skirmishing, while his was the indefatigable, 

 patient, unintermittent toil, conducted in such a manner and 

 on such a scale that it could scarcely fail to secure victory in 

 the end. 



The main victory gained by his work was, as we all know, 

 the destruction of the conception of species as being beyond 

 certain narrow limits fixed and unchangeable, a conception 

 which prevailed almost universally before his time. That this 

 has been gained chiefly by means of Darwin's work and 

 writing, there can be no doubt. Let us admit that others 

 had prepared the way, that the work was carried on 

 simultaneously by many others also, that if the present 

 generally accepted view is true, it must have made its way if 

 Darwin had not lived or spoken ; I say, grant all this to the 

 fullest, and the fact remains that he was the main agent in 

 the conversion of almost the whole scientific world from one 



