COX ON THE FOUNDER OF THE EVOLUTION THEORY 227 
were then the younger men, studying in the fifties, had no idea that a theory 
of evolution had ever been put forward, for no one spoke of it to us, and it 
was never mentioned in a lecture.” He also declares that “Darwin’s book 
fell like a bolt from the blue; it was eagerly devoured, and while it excited 
in the minds of the younger students delight and enthusiasm, it aroused 
among the older naturalists anything from cool aversion to violent opposi¬ 
tion.” 1 
Darwin knew that when he should publish his denial of the sepa¬ 
rate and definitive creation of each particular species, he would have to face a 
nearly unanimous adverse judgment, among the learned and the unlearned 
alike. His feeling in this matter was shown by his half-humorous remark, 
when announcing to Joseph Hooker, in 1844, his conviction as to the trans¬ 
formation of species, that he felt as if he were confessing to a murder! And 
this was only fifteen years after the death of Lamarck. It is indicated also 
by his writing to Asa Gray, in 1856, “As an honest man I must tell you 
that I have come to the heterodox conclusion that there are no such things 
as independently created species,— that species are only strongly defined 
varieties. I know this will make you despise me.” 2 Darwin under¬ 
estimated Gray’s preparedness to receive the new doctrine, but he showed 
that he did not expect a respectful hearing for his novel ideas by men of 
science generally, and in this unfavorable prognostication he proved to be 
right. Hooker, Gray and Wallace were his only staunch allies at first; but 
Huxley joined the little band soon after the opening of the war, although he 
never gladdened Darwin’s heart by unreservedly accepting natural selection. 
Lyell, of all Darwin’s personal friends, gave him the greatest grief by his 
hesitation, especially because he seemed in private more favorable than he 
was willing to appear in public. Worst of all, he confessed to Huxley 
that he was held back more by his feelings than by his judgment. His 
final surrender was made in the tenth edition of his “Principles of Geology,” 
published in 1869. 
For fully ten years, then, Darwin was obliged to plead with his scientific 
acquaintances to come even a little way with him, assuring them that if 
they would only admit the mutability of species, he would not urge them 
to go the length of accepting natural selection,— thus proving that the 
scientific world had by no means been led up to a recognition of the fact 
of transmutation, much less to the reception of any particular theory of 
its causation. Even as late as 1880 we find Huxley apologizing to Darwin 
for having slighted or ignored natural selection in his lecture on “The 
Coming of Age of the Origin of Species,” because, as he argued, it was 
1 “The Evolution Theory,” Thomson’s translation, p. 28. 1904. 
2 “Life and Letters of Charles Darwin,” Vol. II, p. 79. 1887. 
