THE KINSHIP OF LIFE. 17 
Let me speak of certain traits of this work, the Ori- 
gin of Species, which give it a position almost alone 
among books of science. There is in 
it no statement of fact of any import- 
ance which, during the nearly forty 
years since it was first published, has been shown to be 
false. In its theoretical part there is no argument 
which has been shown to be unfair or fallacious. In 
these forty years no serious objection has been raised a 
"e . 
The Origin of 
Species. 
f : : : 1 
to any important conclusion of his which was not at the | 
time fully anticipated and frankly met by him. Indeed, y, © 
there are but few of these objections which with our) 7, 
present knowledge are not much less weighty than Dar- ? 
win then admitted. The progress of science has bridged 
over many chasms in the evidence. 
There is in this work nowhere a suggestion of special 
pleading or of overstatement. The writer is a judge 
and not an advocate, and from his decisions there has 
been no successful appeal. There is in this or any other 
of Darwin’s works scarcely a line of controversial writ- 
ing. He has been the faithful mirror of Nature. The 
relations of Nature to metaphysics he has left to others. 
The tornados which have blown about the Origin of 
Species are not his work. He felt, perhaps, that most 
systems of philosophy are like air plants which thrive 
equally well in any soil; with just facts enough for their 
roots to cling to, they may grow and bloom perennially, 
without other food than the air. 
The “Darwinian theory,” as resulting from these 
many years of gathering of facts, may be briefly stated 
as follows: The various species of ani- 
mals and plants now on the earth are 
the descendants of pre-existing forms 
which have in various ways undergone modification. 
The homologies existing among them are the result of 
The Darwinian 
theory. 
