250 LUCK, OR CUNNING? 



him, to summon up all Ms facts in irresistible array, 

 and never to set out upon a public progress until he 

 was secure against all possible attacks of the ever- 

 watchful and alert enemy in the rear," &c. (p. 73). 



It would not be easy to beat this. Mr. Darwin's worst 

 enemy could wish him no more damaging eulogist. 



Of the " Vestiges " Mr. Allen says that Mr. Darwin 

 "felt sadly" the inaccuracy and want of profound 

 technical knowledge everywhere displayed by the 

 anonymous author. Nevertheless, long after, in the 

 " Origin of Species," the great naturalist wrote with 

 generous appreciation of the " Vestiges of Creation " 

 — "In my opinion it has done excellent service in 

 this country in calling attention to the subject, in 

 removing prejudice, and in thus preparing the ground 

 for the reception of analogous views." 



I have already referred to the way in which Mr. 

 Darwin treated the author of the " Vestiges," and have 

 stated the facts at greater length in " Evolution Old 

 and New," but it may be as weU to give Mr. Darwin's 

 words in full ; he wrote as follows .on the third page 

 of the original edition of the " Origin of Species " : — 



" The author of the ' Vestiges of Creation ' would, I 

 presume, say that, after a certain unknown number of 

 generations, some bird had given birth to a wood- 

 pecker, and some plant to the mistletoe, and that 

 these had been produced perfect as we now see them ; 

 but this assumption seems to me to be no explanation, 

 for it leaves the case of the coadaption of organic 

 beings to each other and to their physical conditions 

 of life untouched and unexplained." 



