408 The Critics of Evolution. [ June, 
no small pains to detect contradictions among the inferences as to 
the class of Crustacea to which he had devoted himself, and 
found none furnished by Darwin’s theory. 
Dr. Gegenbaur, author of “Outlines of Comparative Anatomy,” 
which has been adopted as an authoritative text-book, has re-cast 
his work and embodied therein the Darwinian philosophy. He. 
regards comparative anatomy as the /ouchstone of the truth of 
evolution, 
Darwin’s name is always mentioned among the German natu- 
ralists with the profoundest reverence. His theory is now the 
common starting point of German science in many departments 
of knowledge that would seem at first to be farthest from natural 
history. The recent selection of Darwin as an associate of the - 
French Academy of Science, the very highest honor that contem- 
porary wisdom can confer, mark emphatically the esteem with 
which he is regarded in France, long unwilling to admit the value 
of his labors. ` 
Whether evolution is to be recognized is then no longer an 
open question. “ It is enough that it is a mental view that answers 
to a great reality, and is undoubtedly the broadest principle of 
unification in nature the human mind has yet reached.” As to 
whether it zs proved, depends upon the individual temperament 
and capacity of him who examines it. To some minds there 
exists no possibility of proving the truth or falsehood of any 
moral questions or of any physical problems, unless they can be 
brought to the test of mathematics. Minds of this character 
should confine themselves to their proper sphere, they are beyond 
instruction and are incorrigible. Evolution has been proved, as 
have many other problems in physical and natural science; the 
ablest experts are perfectly satisfied, why should the popular mind 
withhold its assent? “I do not think that I am speaking too 
strongly when I say that there is now scarcely a single compe- 
tent general naturalist who is not prepared to accept some form 
of the doctrine of evolution,’ says Prof. C. Wyville Thomson 
in his Introduction to “The Depths of the Sea,” an account of 
the general results of the dredging cruise of the Porcupine and 
Lightning, 1868, 1869 and 1870, p. 9. 
It may interest our readers to know to what extent the doctrines 
of evolution are taught in our higher institutions of learning. At 
Harvard every professor whose: departments are connected with 
