2i8 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. 



Huxley was the Apostle Paul of the Darwinian 

 movement, and one main result of his active propa- 

 gandism was to so effectively prepare the way for 

 the reception of the profounder issues involved in 

 the theory of the origin of species, that the publica- 

 tion of Darwin's Descent of Man in 1871 created 

 mild excitement. And the weight of his support is 

 the greater because he never omitted to lay stress on 

 the obscurity which still hides the causes of variation 

 which, it must be kept in mind, natural selection 

 cannot bring about, and on which it can only act. 

 He insists on the non-implication of the larger the- 

 ory with its subordinate parts, or with the fate of 

 them. The " doctrine of Evolution is a generalisa- 

 tion of certain facts which may be observed by any 

 one who will take the necessary trouble." The facts 

 are those which biologists class under the heads of 

 Embryology and Palaeontology, to the conclusions 

 from which " all future philosophical and theological 

 speculations will have to accommodate themselves." 



That is the direction of the revolution to which 

 the publication of Man's Place in Nature gave im- 

 petus; and it is in the all-round application of the 

 theory of man's descent that Huxley stands fore- 

 most, both as leader and lawgiver. Mr. Spencer has 

 never shrunk from controversy, but he has not for- 

 saken the study for the arena, and hence his influ- 

 ence, great and abiding as it is, has been less direct 

 and personal than that of his comrade, " ever a 

 fighter," who, in Browning's words, " marched breast 



