1 882.] Editors' Table. 489 



naturalists. But the solid array of facts which Darwin mar- 

 shaled in orderly lines, carried force and conviction to every un- 

 prejudiced mind. It was partly for this reason that the views of 

 Goethe, and St. Hilaire as well as Lamarck, did not gain universal 

 sway and that they were temporarily overthrown by Cuvier and 

 his school with their exact analytical methods. 



But Darwin appeared in the fullness of time. Biology and ge- 

 ology with their subordinate departments of palaeontology, em- 

 bryology, and histology had, after Lamarck's and Cuvier's death, 

 either originated or immensely developed, and the time had 

 arrived for synthetical methods and speculative views. 



Enough was known of the 100,000 species of plants and the near- 

 ly half a million species of animals now living, and of their relations 

 to each other and to former worlds, to warrant the naturalist in 

 attempting a solution of the question as to how they all appeared. 



The result of such inquiries has already been fruitful and 

 happy. It has been given to the intellect of man to attempt a 

 solution of their questions, and the mere attempt, as the result 

 proves, has elevated and drawn out man's intellectual powers in a 

 new direction. Many have aided in this work, but as the leader 

 and successful originator of the new school of evolutionial 

 thought, all will ascribe to Darwin the highest position. His 

 was an epoch-making mind. 



Darwinism, as such, i. e. the theory of natural selection, ex- 

 presses the ultimate cause. We have yet to demonstrate the evo- 

 lutionary laws which originate the tendency to variation from 

 which natural selection takes the start, and naturalists in the fu~ 

 ture will ascribe more to the effects of the environment upon the 

 organism. But the sterile methods and subjects of study pur- 

 sued before the year i860, have been for the most part aban- 

 doned. New light has been thrown on old facts, and Darwin 

 nas sowed the seed, from which a rich intellectual harvest will be 



reaped b : 



y coming generations. 



Charles Robert Darwin, the grandson of Dr. Erasmus Darwin, 

 jva s b o rn Feb 1 2j ( g^ Afte| _ takjng h . g degree at the Universi . 



l Y ot Cambridge in 183 1, at the age of twenty-two, he sailed with 

 captain Fitzroy, of H. M. ship Beagle, as volunteer naturalist in 

 ne survey of the coast of South America. Returning from his 

 °yage around the world in 1836, he published, in 1^39. his 

 Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of 

 the W Un i tn » S visited durin S the Voyage of H. M. S. Beatft round 

 th . World." In 1 840-42 appeared his " Zoology of the Voyage of 

 (18 [ agle " ! and rapidly succeeded his works on " Coral Reefs," 

 tions 2 "V°Q " Volcanic Elands " (1844), and " Geological Observa- 

 U840). His most finished systematic work was his " Mono- 



