FROM BUFFON TO DARWIN. 317 



an idle manner," the original motive will often be outgrown. In 

 the use of the microscope one thing is very likely to happen. 

 A curious sensation of shame will steal over an observer when 

 he becomes conscious that what is really ridiculously small is 

 not the animal or plant which he is handling, but his own know- 

 ledge of its functions and powers and organization. This very 

 feeling, however, will give him an assurance that he has an endow- 

 ment for life in things strange and beautiful to be observed and 

 studied. Nature is prodigal, and in the hope of rearing a couple 

 of sprats will produce five thousand eggs, and more than half a 

 million for a couple of flounders. We need not then be sur- 

 prised if many hundreds or thousands of observers are used 

 up in unproductive labour or self-amusement for every true 

 light of science that shines upon a generation. Yet the 

 laborious accumulation of knowledge by very humble workers 

 may ultimately be of service to mankind. Thus Gilbert White 

 of Selborne not improbably traces the extirpation of leprosy 

 from this part of the globe to the improved knowledge and there- 

 with the greatly extended use of vegetables. So happy a result 

 could never have been foreseen by the botanists who trifled away 

 their unremembered lives in studying kales and carrots and 

 " sweet smallage." 



It is commonly supposed that the advance of science has 

 been greatly hindered by the persistent and often recurring 

 opposition of theologians. That may be true of the middle ages, 

 but of the last century and Our own it is extremely doubtful. 

 The new views on the age of the earth, on the antiquity of man, 

 on the transmutation of species, severally in their turn aroused, it 

 is true, the most violent hostility. The evidence adduced crashed 

 in among accepted beliefs like the bomb of a nihilist. Denuncia- 

 tion and ridicule were freely employed against the new opinions. 

 The " conspiracy of silence " was adopted wherever it could be 

 made effective. The social discouragements, which we all more 

 or less unconsciously apply to those whose opinions we dislike, 

 were no doubt brought to bear as remorselessly as ever upon 

 the happiness and prosperity of many outspoken geologists and 

 evolutionists. But the very fierceness of the controversies helped 

 to arouse attention and keep it awake. Besides, the age was an age 

 in which freedom had found her voice, and the country in which 



