MODERN E VOL UTION. 2 1 1 



of mind — inclined to say to both Mosaists and Evo- 

 lutionists ' A plague on both your houses ! ' and . 

 disposed to turn aside from an interminable and ap- 

 parently fruitless discussion to labour in the fertile 

 fields of ascertainable fact. And I may therefore 

 further suppose that the publication of the Darwin 

 and Wallace papers in 1858, and still more that of 

 the Origin in 1859, had'the effect upon them of the 

 flash of light, which to a man who has lost him- 

 self in a dark night suddenly reveals a road which, 

 whether it takes him straight home or not, certainly 

 goes his way. That which we were looking for and 

 could not find was a hypothesis respecting the origin 

 of known organic forms which assumed the opera- 

 tion of no causes but such as could be proved to be 

 actually at work. We wanted, not to pin our faith 

 to that or any other speculation, but to get hold of 

 clear and definite conceptions which could be 

 brought face to face with facts, and have their 

 validity tested. The Origin provided us with the 

 working hypothesis we sought. Moreover, it did the 

 immense service of freeing us for ever from the di- 

 lemma — refuse to accept the creation hypothesis, 

 and what have you to propose that can be accepted 

 by any cautious reasoner? In 1857 I had no answer 

 ready, and I do not think that any one else had. 

 A year later we reproache'd ourselves with dulness for 

 being perplexed by such an inquiry. My reflection, 

 when I first made myself master of the central idea 

 of the Origin was ' How extremely stupid not to 



