Darwin's Epoch-Making Discovery 23 



who are devoted to the idea of justice. Since its 

 doctrines were acceptable to natures having the 

 most diametrically opposite aspirations, we can 

 understand one of the reasons, at least, why the 

 distorted "social Darwinism" had such an enor- 

 mous and rapid success. It is interesting to trace 

 the influence of these two groups upon the success 

 of the philosophy of force, and to try and under- 

 stand the peculiar appeal which it made to each. 



The favour of the most enlightened and most 

 liberal spirits of the time was assured to the 

 philosophy of force, partly because of its associa- 

 tion with the triumph of true Darwinism. 



The first day of July, 1858, marks the division 

 between two epochs of human thought ; for on this 

 day two papers, one presented by Charles Darwin, 

 and the other by Alfred Russel Wallace, were 

 read before the Linnasan Society at London, and 

 with the reading of these papers, the doctrine 

 of evolution by natural selection was bom. On 

 November twenty-fourth of the following year, 

 Darwin published the first instalment of his 

 thought in its fuller development, — his book on 

 The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selec- 

 tion. This was the fruit of thirty years of work 

 and thought by a worker and thinker of genius, 

 and it at once commanded the world's attention by 

 the transparent honesty and judicial fairness with 

 which it presented its wealth of facts, gathered 

 from a world-wide observation; compared with 

 almost infinite patience; and woven into a theory 



