402 Dr. E. J. Mills on Statical and 



shows, moreover, how natural it is and must be to man's mind 

 to acquire. Great thoughts, however, do not remain for ever 

 without fruit, even w T hen held unconsciously by ignorant people. 

 Secret and imperceptible, they grow. Hence it becomes impor- 

 tant to ascertain whether there are any decided practical evi- 

 dences of the idea of pure motion in modern science. 



The science of the naturalist had always proved dark and dif- 

 ficult whenever an attempt was made to transcend facts and 

 verge upon principles. Its valuable functions were those of a 

 warehouseman and clerk — to collect and register; its specula- 

 tions hovered over the facts rather than rested upon them. The 

 light but pungent satire of Reybaud must be admitted to have 

 had its point. " Celui-ci, me disait-il, appartient corps et ame 

 aux entomozoaires ; il a eu la chance de decouvrir une quin- 

 zieme articulation dans un insecte, et des antennes que personne 

 n'avait soupconnees avant lui . . . . II passera a la posterite 

 avec son hymenoptere, sans compter une espece de scolopendre 

 qui lui a de gran des obligations. Supprimez cet homme de la 

 communaute humaine, et voila des scolopendres qui n'occupent 

 pas, dans Fechelle des etres, le rang qui leur appartient. Lui 

 seul a pu en fairs huit genres, douze sous-genres, sans compter 

 les varietes." "Wide as was the naturalist's scope, his chief duty 

 was the discovery, description, and arrangement of species — 

 species believed, for the most part, to have been distinctly created, 

 and to be each one of them an instance of a break in nature. 

 But the subtle principle of motion, altogether opposed to sta- 

 tionary points, or discontinuity, can now be seen to have been 

 ever asserting itself, asserting itself in more or less fanciful 

 theories of archetypes, of the emanations of beings from few 

 sources, of a fundamental identity of origin for animals and 

 plants*. At length, with seeming but not veritable suddenness, 

 the beautiful and harmonious hypothesis of Darwin and Wallace 

 arose, and ere long was found to comprehend within its grasp 

 the varied forms of the world's life. For many years to come it 

 will be the finest task of the naturalist to work at the verifica- 

 tion of that hypothesis, though we have even now the present 

 value of such verification. Darwin's theory is familiar to every 

 one; the principle of it may be gathered from the following 

 statements of its originator f : — e< A French author, in opposition 

 to the whole tenor of this volume, assumes that, according to 

 my view, species undergo great and abrupt changes, and then 



* It remains for the philosophic chemist and physicist to bridge over the 

 artificial barrier between " living and non-living matter," and to prove that 

 life is the common property of all sensuous objects. 



f On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection (1866), pp. 

 146, 232, 246. 



