

88 Species; or, Darwinism. 



99. However, no chorus of dissentient voices 

 seems to affect the almost unanimous popularity 

 which this theory enjoys. Something more than 

 argument is needed to disabuse men's minds; if in- 

 deed they were ever mistaken on the subject. 

 Men who know enough are not simply misled when 

 they adopt an ill-founded theory; and, as to those 

 who do not know enough to judge for themselves 

 in the matter, neither are they always deceived 

 when they follow the leader. There is something 

 besides logic that may be interested in a question. 

 The distinguished poet and moralist, Aubrey de 

 Vere, remarks upon the subjective difficulties of 

 men with regard to religion, that the logical faculty 

 is but a part of man's understanding; and his un- 

 derstanding again is but a part of his whole being. 

 Poetical criticism affirms the same in its own 

 sphere; and rhetorical analysis does likewise. So 

 there is quite another part of his being than his 

 logic that can be appealed to and challenged by 

 what makes a theory popular or otherwise. A man 

 may know nothing at all about science, " not even 

 the first word," said an eminent anthropologist, the 

 Marquis de Nadaillac, at a scientific congress held 

 last spring in Paris; but, without learning even the 

 first word of science proper, he can catch well 

 enough that such and such a theory means " the 

 denial of creation, the denial of a Creator. God is 

 the ancient regime;" and a theory which promises 

 to change this old order of things appeals to man 



