2 CHAPTERS ON EVOLUTION. 



The leading ideas of 1858 may be briefly and plainly stated. Mr. 

 Wallace's conclusion may be summed up in his own expression, " that 

 there is a tendency in nature to the continued progression of certain 

 classes of -varieties further and further from the original type a 

 progression to which there appears no reason to assign any definite 

 limits and that the same principle which produces this result in a 

 state of nature will also explain why domestic varieties have a 

 tendency, when they become wild, to revert to the original type. 

 This progression," continues Mr. Wallace, "by minute steps in 

 various directions, but always checked and balanced by the neces- 

 sary conditions, subject to which alone existence can be preserved, 

 may, it is believed, be followed out so as to agree with all the 

 phenomena presented by organised beings, their extinction and 

 succession in past ages, and all the extraordinary modifications of 

 form, instinct, and habits which they exhibit." Mr. Darwin's views 

 were no less lucidly expressed. He agreed essentially with Mr. 

 Wallace in attributing the origin of new species to the modification 

 of already existent animals and plants. The " Origin of Species " 

 itself a work first published in November 1859, and at present in 

 its " thirteenth thousand " represents the expansion and elaboration 

 of Mr. Darwin's views of 1858, the publication of which raised at 

 once a multitude of scientific critics, and invoked, it may be added, 

 the rancour, bigotry, and often insensate, because ignorant, opposition 

 of many persons outside the ranks of biological science. 



To understand the meaning of the opposition which the views of 

 Darwin and Wallace at first provoked, it is needful simply to take a 

 brief retrospective view of the history of man's ideas regarding the 

 origin of living nature, including, of course, the history of his own 

 genesis. The opinions of 1858 were at first simply branded with 

 the heterodox stamp, as preceding opinions had been similarly 

 treated from the time of Lamarck in 1801, and, indeed, as every 

 other statement which was not thoroughly " nail'd wi' ScripturY' had 

 been treated with the " apostolic blows and knocks " of those who 

 seemed to claim a monopoly of all truth concerning the past, 

 present, and future of the universe. The reason for the stormy 

 reception of views concerning the species of animals and plants, 

 promulgated as a matter of strict science, and formulated without 

 any reference to other or more venerable opinions, can be readily 

 enough understood, when it is added that the chief opposition to 

 the " Origin of Species " came from the theological camp. Mr. 

 Spencer remarks that " early ideas are not usually true ideas." He 

 might have added with equal truth that early ideas, when woven into 

 the texture of religious systems, are not given to lose their vitality 

 with increasing age. At all events, the opposition to the views of 

 Darwin, and to the evolution theory at large, were chiefly combated, 



