214 Luck, or Cunning ? 
ing, investigating ; eagerly reading every new systematic 
work, every book of travels, every scientific journal, every 
record of sport, or exploration, or discovery, to extract 
from the dead mass of undigested fact whatever item of 
implicit value might swell the definite co-ordinated series 
of notes in his own commonplace books for the now dis- 
tinctly contemplated ‘ Origin of Species.’ His way was 
to make all sure behind him, to summon up all his 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.’ 
Ihave 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 well 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 woodpecker, 
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 coadaptation of organic beings to each other and to their 
physical conditions of life untouched and unexplained.” 
