The Making of Species 
facts in support of his hypothesis. He enunciated 
no crude theory, he indulged in no wild specula- 
tions. He was content to marshal a great array 
of facts, and to draw logical conclusions there- 
from. He was as cautious in his deductions as 
he was careful of his facts. He thus stood head 
and shoulders above the biologists of his day. 
He was a giant among pigmies. So well 
equipped was he that those who attempted to 
oppose him found themselves in the position of 
men, armed with bows and arrows, who seek 
to storm a fortress defended by maxim guns. 
Nor was this all. The majority of the best 
biologists of his time did not attempt to oppose 
him. They were, as we have seen, ready to 
receive with open arms any hypothesis which 
seemed to explain how evolution had occurred. 
Some of them perceived that there were weak 
points in the Darwinian theory, but they pre- 
ferred not to expose these; they were rather 
disposed to make the best of the hypothesis. It 
had so many merits that it seemed to them but 
reasonable to suppose that subsequent investiga- 
tion would prove that the defects were apparent 
rather than real. 
We hear much of the “ magnitude of the 
prejudices” which Darwin had to overcome, and 
of the mighty battle which Darwin and his 
lieutenant Huxley had to fight before the theory 
of the origin of species by natural selection 
6 
