228 DARWIN. 



Think now of convincing this high priest of Evo- 

 lution. In America, Asa Gray was one of the first 

 to espouse Darwin's cause. 



In France, which we have found to be the home 

 of the modern theory for nearly a century, Evolu- 

 tion came as an unwelcome returning exile. As J 

 in England, opinion had finally become settled 

 upon the fixity of species. A proffered translation 

 of the Origin was contemptuously rejected by a 

 publishing firm in Paris. Darwin craved an open- 

 minded audience, which was almost impossible to 

 find on the Continent. " Do you know of any good 

 and speculative foreigners to whom it would be 

 worth while to send my book ? " he wrote to Huxley. 

 This is all by way of evidence of the well-known 

 fact that all the progress which had been made in 

 the long centuries we have been considering was, 

 for the time, a latent force. The Evolution idea,\ 

 with the numerous truths which had accumulated 

 about it, was again almost wholly subordinate to 

 the Special Creation idea. ^ 



Darwin. 



It is Impossible to give Darwin his true relief in 

 the brief limits of these outlines, that is, in propor- 

 tion to his actual work and influence, as compared 

 with his predecessors, and it is difiicult to say any- 

 thing about him which has not been better said be- 

 fore. We can, however, ask two questions which 



