LECTURES AND ESS A YS 



account for a less. But, having nothing 

 to offer in the way of explanation, they 

 for the most part held their peace. Still, 

 the thoughts of reflecting men naturally 

 and necessarily simmered round the 

 question. De Maillet, a contemporary 

 of Newton, has been brought into notice 

 by Professor Huxley as one who " had a 

 notion of the modifiability of living 

 forms." The late Sir Benjamin Brodie, 

 a man of highly philosophic mind, often 

 drew my attention to the fact that, as 

 early as 1794, Charles Darwin's grand- 

 father was the pioneer of Charles Darwin. 1 

 In 1 80 1, and in subsequent years, the 

 celebrated Lamarck, who, through the 

 vigorous exposition of his views by the 

 author of the Vestiges of Creation, ren- 

 dered the public mind perfectly familiar 

 with the idea of evolution, endeavoured 

 to show the development of species out 

 of changes of habit and external con- 

 dition. In 1813 Dr. Wells, the founder 

 of our present theory of Dew, read before 

 the Royal Society a paper in which, to 

 use the words of Mr. Darwin, "he dis- 

 tinctly recognises the principle of natural 

 selection ; and this is the first recognition 

 that has been indicated." The thorough- 

 ness and skill with which Wells pursued 

 his work, and the obvious independence 

 of his character, rendered him long ago a 

 favourite with me ; and it gave me the 

 liveliest pleasure to alight upon this 

 additional testimony to his penetration. 

 Professor Grant, Mr. Patrick Matthew, 

 Von Buch, the author of the Vestiges, 

 D'Halloy, and others, by the enunciation 

 of opinions more or less clear and correct, 

 showed that the question had been fer- 

 menting long prior to the year 1858, 

 when Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace 

 simultaneously, but independently, placed 

 their closely concurrent views before the 

 Linnean Society. 2 



1 Zoonoinia, vol. i., pp. 500-510. 



2 In 1855 Mr. Herbert Spencer (Principles of 

 Psychology, 2nd edit., vol. i., p. 465) expressed 

 "the belief that life under all its forms has 

 arisen by an unbroken evolution, and through 

 the instrumentality of what are called natural 

 causes." This was my belief also at that time. 



These papers were followed in 1859 

 by the publication of the first edition of 

 the Origin of Species. All great things 

 come slowly to the birth. Copernicus, 

 as I informed you, pondered his great 

 work for thirty-three years. Newton for 

 nearly twenty years kept the idea of 

 Gravitation before his mind ; for twenty 

 years also he dwelt upon his discovery of 

 Fluxions, and doubtless would have 

 continued to make it the object of his 

 private thought had he not found 

 Leibnitz upon his track. Darwin for 

 two -and -twenty years pondered the 

 problem of the origin of species, and 

 doubtless he would have continued to 

 do so had he not found Wallace upon 

 his track. 1 A concentrated, but full and 

 powerful, epitome of his labours was the 

 consequence. The book was by no 

 means an easy one; and probably not 

 one in every score of those who then 

 attacked it had read its pages through, 

 or were competent to grasp their signifi- 

 cance if they had. I do not say this 

 merely to discredit them ; for there were 

 in those days some really eminent 

 scientific men, entirely raised above the 

 heat of popular prejudice, and willing to 

 accept any conclusion that science had 

 to offer, provided it was duly backed by 

 fact and argument, who entirely mistook 

 Mr. Darwin's views. In fact, the work 

 needed an expounder, and it found one 

 in Mr. Huxley. I know nothing more 

 admirable in the way of scientific exposi- 

 tion than those early articles of his on 

 the origin of species. He swept the 

 curve of discussion through the really 

 significant points of the subject, en- 

 riched his exposition with profound 

 original remarks and reflections, often 

 summing up in a single pithy sentence 

 an argument which a less compact mind 

 would have spread over pages. But 

 there is one impression made by the 

 book itself which no exposition of it, 

 however luminous, can convey ; and 



1 The behaviour of Mr. Wallace in relation to 

 I this subject has been dignified in the highest 

 j degree. 



