39 
Mr. Warington then read the following Paper : — 
ON THE CREDIBILITY OF DARWINISM. —By George 
Warington, Esq., F.C.S., Mem. Viet. Inst. 
I T is a rare circumstance for the full explanation of any 
phenomenon, or series of phenomena, in nature, to be dis- 
covered at once. In respect to the most certain, as well as 
the most uncertain of the interpretations of Science, there 
has been in nearly every case a period .of speculation, of 
theorizing, in which the view ultimately accepted as true was 
merely an hypothesis. From the very nature of things it 
must be so. A certain interpretation is not to be arrived at 
without a widely- extended series of facts on which it may be 
based, — facts often requiring long and laborious investigation 
to accumulate. In such accumulation, carried on with the 
express purpose of obtaining an explanation, it is impossible 
but that various hypothetical explanations should suggest 
themselves to the inquirer, one of which will be almost certain 
to approve itself to his mind as the most probable. This im- 
mediately becomes his theory ; to ascertain the truth or falsity 
of which is henceforth his object. It may be that further in- 
vestigation disproves it, and it is cast aside ; only, however, 
to be replaced by another, which, so far, stands the test of 
facts. Or it may be that fuller knowledge merely adds 
strength and solidity to that first adopted. But in either 
case it is through hypothesis that truth is ultimately attained. 
Theoretically, of course, the scientific method is first to obtain 
a full view of all the facts, and then deduce the explanation. 
Rarely, if ever, however, is this theory carried out in practice. 
Nor, indeed, can it be ; since how, before any idea of the 
explanation exists, is it to be known what facts especially 
need to be accumulated and sought after ? All that the 
severest Science can demand is that the result, when offered 
for acceptance as true, shall be capable of being cast into this 
theoretical mould; the facts when duly weighed and classified 
being shown exactly and inevitably to imply the explanation 
given. But that this should have been the actual course of 
the investigation — that Science has nothing whatever to do 
with. In a word, to use Darwinian language, the process by 
which true explanations are obtained in Science is very much 
one of Natural Selection. Many hypotheses spring up and 
struggle together for existence ; passing on from hand to 
hand, they become varied and modified ; each variation 
tending to produce harmony with the conditions of life ( i.e . 
the facts of the case) favours prolonged existence ; each 
