The Presidential Address. 
75 
It would indeed be a most interesting study in psychological 
evolution to compare some of the earliest with some of the 
later opinions on the Darwinian theory. This is a task which 
I commend to those who have time and opportunity for 
collecting materials for such a comparison. Now, in the 
peace following the strife, it seems perhaps a reversion to 
ancestral savagery to execute a war-dance over the prostrate 
bodies of the slain; but, for my own part, acknowledging 
that, as a youth, I fell into the ranks of Darwinism, I cannot 
but own that a recent perusal of some of these early attacks 
has afforded me considerable satisfaction. Looked at in the 
present state of knowledge it is seen that many of these 
criticisms were prompted by nothing else than the animus 
of bigotry, or were the ignorant vituperation of extreme 
specialism; nor is it, perhaps, necessary to say that some of 
the loudest clamour was raised by those having no shadow of 
a claim of any kind to make themselves heard. Of these 
multifarious expressions of opinion the majority were, it is 
needless to state, devoid of value, and in many cases the 
critics, perhaps from an incapacity for handling the true 
weapons of scientific discussion, descended to personal 
aspersions upon Mr. Darwin’s character. But, on the other 
hand, the views advanced were more ably handled by the 
larger-minded and more competent thinkers in the world of 
science. From these appeared some criticisms of real im¬ 
portance, which led Darwin, with that splendid candour 
which was part of his nature, to modify certain details of his 
theory in the later editions of the ‘ Origin.’ 
In the meantime, in the quiet seclusion of his Kentish 
home, Darwin pursued his labours with “philosophic calm,” 
answering his critics with gentleness, and turning a deaf ear 
to personalities, knowing that he had a great truth to 
proclaim to the world, and upheld by the knowledge that the 
leaders of biological science had become his disciples. In 
this country Sir Charles Lyell, the illustrious founder of 
Uniformitarian Geology, Dr. Hooker, Herbert Spencer, Prof. 
Huxley, and Sir John Lubbock, were among the first to give 
the weight of their support to the Darwinian hypothesis; 
