1894 LETTERS 413 



all grounds of pure science it " holds the field," as the only 

 hypothesis at present before us which has a sound scientific 

 foundation. It is quite possible that you will apply to me the 

 remark that has often been applied to persons in such a position 

 as mine, that we are apt to exaggerate the importance of that 

 to which our lives have been more or less devoted. But I am 

 sincerely of opinion that the views which were propounded by 

 Mr. Darwin 34 years ago may be understood hereafter as con- 

 stituting an epoch in the intellectual history of the human race. 

 They will modify the whole system of our thought and opinion, 

 our most intimate convictions. But I do not know, I do not 

 think anybody knows, whether the particular views which he 

 held will be hereafter fortified by the experience of the ages 

 which come after us ; but of this thing I am perfectly certain, 

 that the present course of things has resulted from the feeling 

 of the smaller men who have followed him that they are incom- 

 petent to bend the bow of Ulysses, and in consequence many of 

 them are seeking their salvation in mere speculation. Those 

 who wish to attain to some clear and definite solution of the 

 great problems which Mr. Darwin was the first person to set 

 before us in later times must base themselves upon the facts 

 which are stated in his great work, and, still more, must pursue 

 their inquiries by the methods of which he was so brilliant an 

 exemplar throughout the whole of his life. You must have his 

 sagacity, his untiring search after the knowledge of fact, his 

 readiness always to give up a preconceived opinion to that 

 which was demonstrably true, before you can hope to carry his 

 doctrines to their ultimate issue ; and whether the particular 

 form in which he has put them before us may be such as is 

 finally destined to survive or not is more, I venture to think, 

 than anybody is capable at this present moment of saying. But 

 this one thing is perfectly certain — that it is only by, pursuing 

 his methods, by that wonderful single-mindedness, devotion to 

 truth, readiness to sacrifice all things for the advance of definite 

 knowledge, that we can hope to come any nearer than we are 

 at present to the truths which he struggled to attain. 



To Sir J. D. Hooker 



Hodeslea, Eastbourne, Bee. 4, 1894. 

 My dear old Man — See the respect I have for your six 

 years seniority ! I wished you had been at the dinner, but 

 was glad you were not. Especially as next morning there 



