286 LUCK, OR CUNNING ? 



/aire. The cards he held — and, on the whole, his hand 

 was a good one — he played with judgment ; and thongh 

 not one of those who would have achieved greatness 

 under any circumstances, he nevertheless did achieve 

 greatness of no mean order. Greatness, indeed, of the 

 highest kind — that of one who is without fear and with- 

 out reproach — will not ultimately be allowed him, but 

 greatness of a rare kind can only be denied him by 

 those whose judgment is perverted by temper or per- 

 sonal ill-will. He found the world believing in fixity 

 of species, and left it believing — in spite of his own 

 doctrine — in descent with modification. 



I have said on an earlier page that Mr. Darwin 

 was heir to a discredited truth, and left behind him 

 an accredited fallacy. This is true as regards men of 

 science and cultured classes who understood his dis- 

 tinctive feature, or thought they did, and so long as 

 Mr. Darwin lived accepted it with very rare excep- 

 tions ; but it is not true as regards the unreading, 

 unreflecting public, who seized the salient point of 

 descent with modification only, and troubled them- 

 selves little about the distinctive feature. It would 

 almost seem as if Mr. Darwin had reversed the usual 

 practice of philosophers and given his esoteric doctrine 

 to the world, while reserving the exoteric for his most 

 intimate and faithful adherents. This, however, is a 

 detail ; the main fact is, that Mr. Darwin brought us all 

 round to evolution. True, it was Mr. Darwin backed 

 by the Times and the other most influential organs of 

 science and culture, but it was one of Mr. Darwin's great 

 merits to have developed and organised, this backing. 



