Ill 



THE INTERPRETER 



In an essay on the Origin of Species, written in 

 i860, Huxley admits that two years before then "the 

 position of the supporters of the special creation 

 theory seemed more impregnable than ever, if not by 

 its own inherent strength, at any rate by the obvious 

 failure of all the attempts which have been made to 

 carry it." 1 If it was discarded, there was nothing to 

 replace it ; hence, like institutions for the reform or 

 abolition of which the time is not ripe, it existed on 

 sufferance. Emphasis of this fact is necessary for 

 full understanding of the revolution whereby old 

 things passed away and all things became new. 



Huxley was a boy of tv/elve when Darwin, on his 

 return to England, opened his " first note-book for 

 facts in relation to the origin of species," speculation 

 about the possible modification of which had been 

 incited by his observations on past and present life- 

 forms on the South American continent. Fifteen 

 months afterwards, in October, 1838, he read for 

 amusement Malthus on Population, and he says : — 



1 Coll. Essays, ii. p. 69. 

 97 



