A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



" To the solid ground 

 Of A'ature trusts the 7>nnd which builds for aye." — WORDSWORTH 



THURSDAY, MAY 6, i8So 



THE COMING OF ACE OF THE ORICIN OF 

 SPECIES ■ 



MANY of you will be familiar with the aspect of this 

 small green-covered book. It is a copy of the 

 first edition of the " Origin of Species," and bears the 

 date of its production — the first of October, 1S59. Only 

 a few months, therefore, are needed to complete the full 

 tale of twenty-one years since its birthday. 



Those whose memories carry them back to this time 

 will remember that the infant w-as remarkably lively, and 

 that a great number of excellent persons mistook its 

 manifestations of a vigorous individuality for mere 

 naughtiness ; in fact there was a very pretty turmoil 

 about its cradle. My recollections of the period are 

 particularly vivid ; for, having conceived a tender affec- 

 tion for a child of what appeared to me to be such 

 remarkable promise, I acted for some time in the 

 capacity of a sort of under-nurse, and thus came in for 

 my share of the storms which threatened even the very 

 life of the young creature. For some years it was un- 

 doubtedly warm w-ork, but considering how exceedingly 

 unpleasant the apparition of the new-comer must have 

 been to those who did not fall in love with him at first 

 sight, I think it is to the credit of our age that the war 

 was not fiercer, and that the more bitter and unscrupulous 

 forms of opposition died away as soon as they did. 



I speak of this period as of something past and gone, 

 possessing merely a historical, I had almost said an anti- 

 quarian interest. For, during the second decade of the ex- 

 istence of the " Origin of Species," opposition, though by 

 no means dead, assumed a different aspect. On the par 

 of all those who had any reason to respect themselves, 

 it assumed a thoroughly respectful character. By this 

 time the dullest began to perceive that the child was not 

 likely to perish of any congenital weakness or infantile 

 disorder, but was growing into a stalwart personage, upon 

 whom mere goody scoldings and threatenings with the 

 birch-rod were quite thrown away. 



' A Lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, Friday, March 19. 



Vol. XXII.-— No. 549 



In fact, those who have watched the progress of science 

 within the last ten years will bear me out to the full when 

 I assert that there is no field of biological inquiry in which 

 the influence of the "Origin of Species " is not traceable ; 

 the foremost men of science in every country are either 

 avowed champions of its leading doctrines, or at any rate 

 abstain from opposing them ; a host of young and ardent 

 investigators seek for and find inspiration and guidance 

 in l\Ir. Darwin's great work ; and the general doctrine of 

 Evolution, to one side of which it gives expression, finds 

 in the phenomena of biology a firm base of operations 

 whence it may conduct its conquest of the whole realm of 

 mture. 



History warns us, however, that it is the customary 

 fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as 

 superstitions ; and, as matters now stand, it is hardly rash 

 to anticipate that, in another twenty years, the new gene- 

 ration, educated under the influences of the present day, 

 will be in danger of accepting the main doctrines of the 

 Origin of Species with as little reflection, and it may be 

 with as little justification, as so many of our contemporaries 

 twenty years ago, rejected them. 



Against any such a consummation let us all devoutly 

 pray ; for the scientific spirit is of more value than its 

 products, and irrationally-held truths may be more harm- 

 ful than reasoned errors. Now the essence of the scien- 

 tific spirit is criticism. It tells us that to whatever 

 doctrine claiming our ascent wc should reply, Take it if you 

 can compel it. The struggle for existence holds as much 

 in the intellectual as in the physical world. A theory is a 

 species of thinking, and its right to exist is coextensive 

 with its power of resisting extinction by its rivals. 



From this point of view it appears to me that it would 

 be but a poor way of celebrating the Coming of Age of the 

 Origin of Species were I merely to dwell upon the facts^ 

 undoubted and remarkable as they are, of its far-reaching 

 influence and of the great following of ardent disciples who 

 are occupied in spreading and developing its doctrines. 

 Mere insanities and inanities have before now swollen 

 to portentous size in the course of twenty years. Let us 

 rather ask this prodigious change in opinion to justify 

 itself ; let us inquire whether anything has happened 

 since 1S59 which will explain, on rational grounds, why so 

 many are worshipping that which they burned, and burning 



