INTRODUCTORY 15 



In 1871 Darwin published his great work, second 

 only to the " Origin," which he called the " Descent of 

 Man," a book which differs from its predecessor in 

 being easy to read. In it he supplemented the 

 theory of natural selection by the theory of sexual 

 selection, to which the youngest school of biologists 

 has lately afforded signal support. Gradually the 

 scientific world became convinced, whilst Spencer's 

 "Principles of Biology" (1864-67) amplified the 

 theory and included it in the author's conception 

 of universal evolution. In 1880 Huxley lectured at 

 the Royal Institution on the " Coming of Age of 

 the ' Origin of Species,' " and was able to record 

 its scientific triumph. Here and there a theologian 

 yielded to the evidence ; but the popular heroes of 

 the time — Disraeli, Gladstone, Salisbury, Manning, 

 Newman, Carlyle, Ruskin — all repudiated the con- 

 ception, gratuitously assuming their competence to 

 express any opinion upon it. 



Now and again some amateur publishes a volume 

 against the theory of organic evolution in general 

 or the Darwinian theory of natural selection in 

 particular, but the time has gone by for the necessity 

 of answering them. And just as the theologians 

 came to withdraw their charge of atheism against 

 Newton, and found in gravitation a new instance of 

 the Divine power and wisdom, so the more liberal 

 theologians of to-day now accept the concluding 

 paragraph of the " Origin," in which Darwin declares 

 that there is some grandeur in the evolutionary 

 conception of the Divine method. 



The last prominent attack upon the theory of 

 organic evolution was made in the late Marquis of 



