Centennial of Charles Darwin 379 



highest gifts bestowed upon man. Effects of cross- 

 fertilization, in which the vegetable kingdom, the con- 

 trivances by which orchids are fertilized by insects — 

 "Insectivorous plants" — "power of movements in 

 plants," "Descent of man," and numerous mono- 

 graphs. 



When confronted with the admitted fact that nature 

 at present offers an insuperable bar to the mixing of 

 species, so as to produce a fruitful offspring, he offered 

 the following suggestion which has stuck in the ideas 

 of his disciples, as if it were undoubtedly true : ' ' That 

 one existing animal has not been derived from any 

 other existing animal, but that both are the descendants 

 of a common ancestor which was at once different from 

 either, but in essential characters intermediate between 

 them both.", He admitted that he could produce no 

 such intermediate form, and also that the known facts 

 of Geology were against the theory. These are his 

 candid words: "Geology assuredly does not reveal any 

 such finely graduated organic chain; and this is the 

 most obvious and serious objection that can be 

 urged against the theory. The explanation lies, as I 

 believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological 

 record." 



Darwin attempted to formulate a philosophy of life 

 along certain lines, but it would not be correct to call 

 him in early life an atheist. 



"Agnostic" was the term invented by Huxley to re- 

 present the attitude of mind of the group of naturalists 

 who accepted the theories I have outlined. Nor was 

 their air of humility merely affected. 



Speaking of the protoplasm, which is the primordial 

 form of all life, Huxley denned it as "matter potenti- 

 ally alive and having within itself the tendency to assume 

 a definite form"; and added, "what is the cause of this 

 wonderful difference between the dead particle and the 

 living particle of matter, appearing in other respects 



