ADDRESS. 3 



cases could not be overlooked or misundez'stood. Nevertheless, the book 

 of Nature was like some richly illuminated missal, written in au unknown 

 tongue. The graceful forms of the letters, the beauty of the coloring 

 excited our wonder and admiration ; but of the true meaning little was 

 known to us ; indeed wo scarcely realised that there was any meaning to 

 decipher. Now glimpses of the truth are gradually revealing them- 

 selves ; we perceive that there is a reason — and in many cases we know 

 what that reason is — for every difference in form, in size, and in color ; 

 for every bone and every feather, almost for every hair. Moreover, each 

 problem which is solved opens out vistas, as it were, of others perhaps 

 even more interesting. With this important change the name of our illus- 

 trious countryman, Darwin, is intimately associated, and the year 1859 

 will always be memorable iu science as having produced his work on 

 ' The Origin of Species.' In the previous year he and Wallace had 

 published short papers, in which they clearly state the theory of natural 

 selection, at which they had simultaneously and independently arrived. 

 We cannot wonder that Darwin's views should have at first excited 

 great opposition. Nevertheless from the first they met with powerful 

 support, especially, in this country, from Hooker, Huxley, and Herbert 

 Spencer. The theory is based on four axioms : — 



' 1. That no two animals or plants iu nature are identical in all 

 respects. 



' 2. That the offspring tend to inherit the peculiarities of their 

 parents. 



' 3. That of those which come into existence, only a small number 

 reach maturity. 



* 4. That those, which are, on the whole, best adapted to the circum- 

 stances in which they are placed, are most likely to leave descendants.' 



Darwin commenced his work by discussing the causes and extent 

 of vai'iability in animals, and the origin of domestic varieties ; he showed 

 the impossibility of distinguishing between varieties and species, and 

 pointed out the wide differences which man has produced in some cases — 

 as, for instance, in our domestic pigeons, all unquestionably descended 

 from a common stock. He dwelt on the struggle for existence (since 

 become a household word), which, inevitably resulting in the survival of 

 the fittest, tends gradually to adapt any race of animals to the conditions 

 in which it occurs. 



While thus, however, showing the great importance of natural 

 selection, he attributed to it no exclusive influence, but fully admitted that 

 other causes — the use and disuse of organs, sexual selection, &c. — had to 

 be taken into consideration. Passing on to the difficulties of his theory he 

 accounted for the absence of intermediate varieties between species, to a 

 great extent, by the imperfection of the geological record. Here, however, I 

 must observe that, as I have elsewhere remarked, those who rely on the 

 absence of links between different species really argue in a vicious circle, 

 because wherever such links do exist they regard the whole chain as a 



B2 



