198 ON THE RECEPTION OF 



ence. In my earliest criticisms of the ' Origin ' I ventured to 

 point out that its logical foundation was insecure so long as 

 experiments in selective breeding had not produced varieties 

 which were more or less infertile ; and that insecurity remains 

 up to the present time. But, with any and every critical doubt 

 which my sceptical ingenuity could suggest, the Danvinian 

 hypothesis remained incomparably more probable than the 

 creation hypothesis. And if we had none of us been able to 

 discern the paramount significance of some of the most patent 

 and notorious of natural facts, until they were, so to speak, 

 thrust under our noses, what force remained in the dilemma 

 creation or nothing? It was obvious that, hereafter, the 

 probability would be immensely greater, that the links of 

 natural causation were hidden from our purblind eyes, than 

 that natural causation should be incompetent to produce all 

 the phenomena of nature. The only rational course for those 

 who had no other object than the attainment of truth, was to 

 accept " Darwinism " as a working hypothesis, and see what 

 could be made of it. Either it would prove its capacity to 

 elucidate the facts of organic life, or it would break down under 

 the strain. This was surely the dictate of common sense ; 

 and, for once, common sense carried the day. The result has 

 been that complete volte-face of the whole scientific world, 

 which must seem so surprising to the present generation. I 

 do not mean to say that all the leaders of biological science 

 have avowed themselves Darwinians ; but I do not think 

 that there is a single zoologist, or botanist, or palaeontologist, 

 among the multitude of active workers of this generation, 

 who is other than an evolutionist, profoundly influenced by 

 Darwin's views. Whatever may be the ultimate fate of the 

 particular theory put forth by Darwin, I venture to affirm that, 

 so far as my knowledge goes, all the ingenuity and all the 

 learning of hostile critics have not enabled them to adduce a 

 solitary fact, of which it can be said, this is irreconcilable with 

 the Danvinian theory. In the prodigious variety and com- 



