202 LUCK, OR CUNNING? 



smooth, the path beforehand for the future champion of 

 the amended evolutionism. Geology on the one hand 

 and astronomy on the other were making men's minds 

 gradually familiar with the conception of slow natural 

 development, as opposed to immediate and miraculous 

 creation. 



"The influence of these novel conceptions upon 

 the growth and spread of evolutionary ideas was 

 far-reaching and twofold. In the first place, the dis- 

 covery of a definite succession of nearly related organic 

 forms following one another with evident closeness 

 through the various ages, inevitably suggested to every 

 inquiring observer the possibility of their direct descent 

 one from the other. In the second place, the discovery 

 that geological formations were not really separated 

 each from its predecessor by violent revolutions, but 

 were the result of gradual and ordinary changes, 

 discredited the old idea of frequent fresh creations 

 after each catastrophe, and familiarised the minds of 

 men of science with the alternative notion of slow 

 and natural evolutionary processes. The past was 

 seen in effect to be the parent of the present; the 

 present was recognised as the child of the past." 



This is certainly not Mr. Darwin's own account of 

 the matter. Probably the truth will lie somewhere 

 between the two extreme views : and on the one hand, 

 the world of thought was not seething quite so badly 

 as Mr. Allen represents it, while on the other, though 

 " three classes of fact," &c., were undoubtedly "brought 



