The Making of Species 
Never was a man with a theory less dogmatic. 
Never was the holder of a theory more careful of 
the expressions he used. Never was a scientific 
man more ready to give ear to his opponents, to 
meet them half way, and, where necessary, to 
compromise. Darwin was not afraid of facts, 
and was always ready to alter his views when 
they appeared to be opposed to facts. The 
average scientific man of to-day makes facts 
fit his theory; if they refuse to fit it he ignores 
or denies them. 
Darwin continually modified his views ; when 
he found himself in a tight place he did not 
hesitate to resort to Lamarckian factors, such as 
the inheritance of the effects of use and disuse 
and of the effects of environment. He conceded 
that natural selection was insufficient to account 
for all the phenomena of organic evolution, and 
advanced the theory of sexual selection in order 
to account for facts which the major hypothesis 
seemed to him incapable of explaining. 
Darwin, moreover, having ample private means, 
was not obliged to work for a living, and was 
therefore able to devote the whole of his time to 
research. The advantages of such a position 
cannot be over-estimated, and, perhaps, have not 
been sufficiently taken into account in apportion- 
ing the praise between Darwin and Wallace for 
their great discovery. 
To all these factors in Darwin’s favour we 
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