THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' 



39 



him, ever afterwards, as Pallas Athene may have looked at 

 Dian, after the Endymion affair), declared himself a Dar- 

 winian, though not without putting in a serious caveat. Never- 

 theless, he was a tower of strength, and his courageous stand 

 for truth as against consistency, did him infinite honour. As 

 evolutionists, sans phrase, I do not call to mind among the 

 biologists more than Asa Gray, who fought the battle splen- 

 didly in the United States ; Hooker, who was no less vigorous 

 here; the present Sir John Lubbock and myself. Wallace 

 was far away in the Malay Archipelago ; but, apart from his 

 direct share in the promulgation of the theory of natural 

 selection, no enumeration of the influences at work, at the 

 time I am speaking of, would be complete without the men- 

 tion of his powerful essay 'On the Law which has regulated 

 the Introduction of New Species,' which was published in 

 1855. On reading it afresh, I have been astonished to recol- 

 lect how small was the impression it made. 



In France, the influence of Elie de Beaumont and of 

 Flourens — the former of whom is said to have " damned him- 

 self to everlasting fame " by inventing the nickname of " la 

 science moussante " for Evolutionism,* — to say nothing of the 

 ill-will of other powerful members of the Institut, produced 

 for a long time the effect of a conspiracy of silence ; and 

 many years passed before the Academy redeemed itself from 

 the reproach that the name of Darwin was not to be found 

 on the list of its members. However, an accomplished 

 writer, out of the range of academical influences, M. Laugel, 

 gave an excellent and appreciative notice of the ' Origin ' in 

 the ' Revue des Deux Mondes.' Germany took time to con- 

 sider ; Bronn produced a slightly Bowdlerized translation of 

 the ' Origin ' ; and 'Kladderadatsch ' cut his jokes upon the 

 ape origin of man ; but I do not call to mind that any scien- 



* One is reminded of the effect of another small academic epigram. 

 The so-called vertebral theory of the skull is said to have been nipped in 

 the bud in France by the whisper of an academician to his neighbor, that, 

 in that case, one's head was a " vertebre pensante.' 



