Charles Darwin. 461 



sooner or later win acceptance from the younger and more 

 observant of: these. The reason why these moderate expecta- 

 tions were much and so soon exceeded are not far to seek, 

 though they were not then obvious to the world in general. 



the investigating naturalists of that day, yet their work and 



the direction of evolution. Even those who manfully rowed 

 gainst the current were more or less carried along with it, and 

 some of them unwittingly contributed to its force. Most of 

 them in their practical studies had worked up to, or were 

 nearly approaching, the question of the relation of the past 

 inhabitants of the earth t<> the present, and of the present to 

 one another, in such wise as to suggest inevitably that, some- 

 how or other, descent with modification was eventually to be 

 the explanation. This was the natural outcome of the line of 

 thought of which Lyell early became the cautious and fair- 

 minded expositor, and with whicii he reconstructed theoretical 

 geology. If Lyeli had known as much at first hand of botany 



brated chapter on the permanence of species in the "Principles" 

 would have been reconsidered before the work had passed to 

 the ninth edition in 1853. He was convinced species went out 



came in one by one, bearing the impress of their immediate 

 - : but he saw no way to connect the two through 

 natural operations. Nor, in fact, had any of the evolutionists 

 been able to assign real causes capable of leading on such 

 variations as are of well-known occurrence to wider and specific 

 or generic differences. Just here came Darwin. When upon 

 the spot he had perceived that the animals of the Galapagos 



that Darwin originated and i 



