4 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



thing really interesting happened. Sir Charles Lyell and Sir Joseph 

 Hooker left with the Linnean Society what appeared to be an ordinary 

 roll of manuscript, but what in reality was a parcel charged with high 

 explosives, prepared by two very innocent-looking men — Alfred Russel 

 Wallace and Charles Darwin. As a matter of honesty it must be admitted 

 that these two men were well aware of the deadly nature of its contents, 

 and knew that if an explosion occurred, Man himself, the crown of creation, 

 could not escape its destructive effects. Owen examined the contents of 

 the parcel and came to the conclusion that they were not dangerous ; 

 at least, he manifested no sign of alarm in his Presidential Address. He 

 dismissed both Wallace and Darwin, particularly Darwin, in the briefest 

 of paragraphs, at the same time citing passages from his own work to 

 prove that the conception of Natural Selection as an evolutionary force 

 was one which he had already recognised. 



As I address these words to you I cannot help marvelling over the 

 difference between our outlook to-day and that of the audience which Sir 

 Th _ Richard Owen had to face in this city sixty-nine years ago. 



formation of The vast assemblage which confronted him was convinced , 

 on Man's almost without a dissentient, that Man had appeared on earth 

 Origin. ^y a S p ec i a l ac t of creation ; whereas the audience which I 



have now the honour of addressing, and that larger congregation which 

 the wonders of wireless bring within the reach of my voice, if not con- 

 vinced Darwinists are yet prepared to believe, when full proofs are 

 forthcoming, that Man began his career as a humble primate animal, and 

 has reached his present estate by the action and reaction of biological 

 forces which have been and are ever at work within his body and brain. 



This transformation of outlook on Man's origin is one of the marvels 

 of the nineteenth century, and to see how it was effected we must turn 

 Darwin's our attention for a little while to the village of Downe, in the 

 Generalship. Kentish uplands, and note what Charles Darwin was doing 

 on the very day that Sir Richard Owen was delivering his address here in 

 Leeds. He sat in his study struggling with the first chapter of a new book ; 

 but no one foresaw, Owen least of all, that the publication of the 

 completed book, The Origin of Species, fifteen months later (1859), was to 

 effect a sweeping revolution in our way of looking at living things and to 

 initiate a new period in human thought — the Darwinian Period — in which 

 we still are. Without knowing it, Darwin was a consummate general. 

 He did not launch his first campaign until he had spent twenty-two 



