DARWIN MEMORIAL. 55 



point to every domesticated animal — the horticulturist and pomolo- 

 gist to all cultivated plants — the systematist and zoogeographer to 

 the limits of species which varied with knowledge of their distri- 

 bution — the palaeontologist to the gradation between the extinct 



... • 



forms and widely separated living species, as well as to that between 



forms which lived in successive earlier epochs. 



It was urged that the Darwinian theory was opposed to revelation, 

 and subversive of Christianity. 



As students of nature and seekers after truth alone — so far as 

 nature is concerned — we only ask whether the views of Darwin are 

 true or not. But now, from many a pulpit, and from the most en- 

 lightened of the clergy, we hear the claim that evolution is in per- 

 fect accordance with revelation, and is a witness to the power, pres- 

 cience, and goodness of God. 



It was contended that acceptance of the teachings of Danvin 

 would have a pernicious tendency, and entail riot, lawlessness, and 

 crime in the world. 



A long life of singular purity and blamelessness in the person of 

 Darwin was an answer. An unsullied heritage from an ancestor 

 entertaining like views has been transmitted to heirs of his body 

 without flaw. Sons of the great philosopher continue the studies 

 of their great sire, and worthily wear the heavy mantle left to them. 



One after another the scientific opponents of evolution became 

 convinced of its verity, or died out. The naturalists of a new 

 generation with one accord accepted "Darwinism" as a starting 

 point for their more profound studies. The methods and aims of 

 biology became changed. Biology became exalted from empiricism 

 into a science. Long before "The Origin of Species" had even 

 " come of age," acceptance of its teachings had become an essential 

 of scientific creed, and Darwin was acknowledged to have effected 

 a greater revolution in science than any Englishman since the time 

 of Newton. Most meet was it then that he should rest by the side 

 of his great predecessor whose rival he will ever be in fame. 



