THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' l8/ 



of sense, as well as of modesty, to ascribe to the men of that 

 generation less capacity or less honesty than their successors 

 possess. What, then, are the causes which led instructed and 

 fair-judging men of that day to arrive at a judgment so 

 different from that which seems just and fair to those who 

 follow them ? That is really one of the most interesting of all 

 questions connected with the history of science, and I shall 

 try to answer it. I am afraid that in order to do so I must 

 run the risk of appearing egotistical. However, if I tell my 

 own story it is only because I know it better than that of 

 other people. 



I think I must have read the ' Vestiges ' before I left Eng- 

 land in 1846 ; but, if I did, the book made very little impres- 

 sion upon me, and I was not brought into serious contact with 

 the 'Species' question until after 1850. At that time, I had 

 long done with the Pentateuchal cosmogony, which had been 

 impressed upon my childish understanding as Divine truth, 

 with all the authority of parents and instructors, and from 

 which it had cost me many a struggle to get free. But my 

 mind was unbiassed in respect of any doctrine which presented 

 itself, if it professed to be based on purely philosophical and 

 scientific reasoning. It seemed to me then (as it does now) 

 that " creation," in the ordinary sense of the word, is perfectly 

 conceivable. I find no difficulty in imagining that, at some 

 former period, this universe was not in existence ; and that 

 it made its appearance in six days (or instantaneously, if 

 that is preferred), in consequence of the volition of some pre- 

 cxistcnt Being. Then, as now, the so-called a priori argu- 

 ments against Theism, and, given a Deity, against the 

 possibility of creative acts, appeared to me to be devoid of 

 reasonable foundation. I had not then, and I have not now, 

 the smallest a priori objection to raise to the account of the 

 creation of animals and plants given in 'Paradise Lost,' in 

 which Milton so vividly embodies the natural sense of Genesis. 

 Far be it from me to say that it is untrue because it is impos- 



