21 



" Those who have watched the progress of science within the last ten 

 years will bear me out to the full, when I assert that there is no field of 

 biological inquiry in which the influence of the Origin of Species is not 

 traceable." 



It is interesting to find that of the sixty scientific societies of which 

 Darwin was an honorary member, only 15, or one quarter, elected him 

 before 1870. As to the magnitude of the change in public opinion 

 Mr Huxley wrote in 1887 : 



" The contrast between the present condition of public opinion upon 

 the Darwinian question ; between the estimation in which Darwin's views 

 are now held in the scientific world ; between the acquiescence, or at least 

 quiescence, of the theologians of the self-respecting order at the present 

 day and the outburst of antagonism on all sides in 1858-9, when the new 

 theory respecting the origin of species first became known to the older 

 generation to which I belong, is so startling that, except for documentary 

 evidence, I should be sometimes inclined to think my memories dreams." 



1865 Read a paper before the Linnean Society " On the Movements and 

 Habits of Climbing plants." (Published as a book in 1875.) 



1866 Publication of the fourth edition of the Origin (1250 copies). 



1867 Received the Prussian Order " Pour le Merite." 



1868 Publication of the Variation of Animals and Plants under Domesti- 

 cation. 



"About my book I will give you [Sir Joseph Hooker] a bit of advice. 

 Skip the whole of Vol. 1., except the last chapter (and that need only be 

 skimmed) and skip largely in the 2nd volume ; and then you will say it 

 is a very good book." 



1869 Publication of the fifth edition of the Origin. 



1871 Publication of The Descent of Man. 



" Although in the Origin of Species the derivation of any particular 

 species is never discussed, yet I thought it best, in order that no honourable 

 man should accuse me of concealing my views, to add that by the work 

 in question 'light would be thrown on the origin of man and his history.'" 



" Darwin's work in regard to the descent of man has not been sur- 

 passed ; the more we immerse ourselves in the study of the structural 

 relationships between apes and man, the more is our path illumined by the 

 clear light radiating from him, and through his calm and deliberate investi- 

 gation, based on a mass of material in the accumulation of which he has 



