DARWIN'S PROBLEM 55 



thousand copies of the book had been printed and sold. It 

 was translated into every European language and was dis- 

 cussed by scientific papers in every scientific center of the 

 world. It was a topic of talk for individual scientists as they 

 met on the street, in the lecture hall, in the drawing-room, 

 and everywhere else. Indeed, the excitement was so great 

 that college students talked about the book in club and class- 

 room. They sat up late at night in mighty discussion over 

 Darwin's problem and over his solution of it. Certain mer- 

 chants and preachers took up the subject and waxed eloquent 

 about it over the counter and from the pulpit. And, as might 

 have been expected, in every case those who knew most about 

 the facts of life were usually most inclined to accept Darwin's 

 theory about the origin of species. At the same time also, then 

 as now, numberless persons lived in ignorance of Darwin's 

 book and of what it taught. 



Until he died, in 1882, Darwin continued to gather facts, 

 to draw conclusions, and to write about them for the benefit 

 of those who were younger and more ignorant than he was. 

 When he died he was seventy : five years old, honored and 

 loved by thinkers the world over. His fame came through 

 the success he had in studying certain problems of life, for 

 his theory of evolution had turned upside down some of the 

 cherished beliefs of the centuries. It was he who joined 

 facts together in what we shall call the " five-linked chain." 



