158 CHARLES DARWIN. 



America, recognised the success of the teachings he 

 could not accept. 



" Sprung from ji race of theologians, this celebrated man 

 combated to the last the theory of natural selection. One of 

 the man}' times I had the pleasure of meeting him in the 

 United States was at Mr. Winthrop's beautiful residence at 

 Brookline, near Boston. Rising from luncheon, we all halted, 

 as if by a common impulse in front of a window, and continued 

 there a discussion which had been started at table. The 

 maple was in its autumn glory; and the exquisite beauty of the 

 scene outside seemed, in my case, to interpenetrate without 

 disturbance the intellectual action. Earnestly, almost sadly, 

 Agassiz turned and said to the gentlemen standing round, ' I 

 confess that I was not prepared to see this theory received as 

 it has been by the best intellects of our time. Its success is 

 greater than I could have thought possible.' " * 



The history of science can hardly supply anything 

 more sad than the blight which may fall on a man's 

 career because he is unable, from conscientious motives, 

 to use some great means of advance. Such a weapon 

 for the progress of science was provided by the Dar- 

 winian theory, and men were to be henceforth divided 

 according to their use or neglect of the new oppor- 

 tunities. Men who up to that time had been equals 

 were to be for ever separated, some to press forward 

 in the front rank of scientific discovery, others to 

 remain as interesting relics of a byegone age. 



It is hardly necessary to say that this does not 

 apply to men, like Agassiz, who had already left their 

 mark deep upon the science of their day, but it has a 



* Presidential address to the British Association at Belfast, 1874. 

 Report, p. Ixxxvii. 



