DARWINISM AND OTHER BRANCHES OF SCI&NC&. 345 



tion between one science and another to which we are 

 accustomed. 



It is interesting to note the wondrous change that is 

 taking place, I might almost say that has taken place, in 

 the popular estimate of the Darwinian theory. It has 

 been well said that a new theory, if eventually proved 

 true, has often to run through three different phases, 

 In the first place, every one exclaims that the theory 

 is not true ; then it is urged that the theory is contrary 

 to religion; and, lastly, that everybody knew it long 

 ago. The great doctrine of natural selection promul- 

 gated by Darwin has run through these courses. At 

 its first publication it was received with an outburst of 

 incredulity among the unthinking part of the commu- 

 nity. Every one recollects the denunciations it re- 

 ceived and the ridicule which the new doctrine had to 

 encounter. But the theory of Darwin has survived that 

 stage. The truth inherent in the principles of Darwin 

 has quietly brushed aside opposition, and now we hear 

 but little of it. The funeral of Darwin at Westminster 

 Abbey must be regarded as marking a momentous epoch 

 in the history of thought. That the great doctrine would 

 some day be accepted was a necessary truth, but I do not 

 think that any one who recollects the publication of the 

 " Origin of Species " could then have anticipated the 

 enormous change in educated opinion which the next 

 .quarter of a century was to disclose. Still less likely 

 would it have seemed that the whole nation would haye 

 so far acknowledged Darwin as, with .one voice, to de- 

 mand that his remains should be interred in the national 

 mausoleum. 



