158  Change  from  Old  to  New  Botany.     { AmA^i^ann- 
Darwin's  views,  and  in  our  college  natural  history  society  most  of 
the  meetings  were  spent  in  discussing  evolution.  Some  of  us  had 
really  read  the  "  Origin  of  Species,"  but  all  were  ready  to  talk 
about  it.  The  older  men,  even  the  naturalists  by  profession,  were 
much  more  conservative.  A  few  adventurous  spirits  were  more 
Darwinian  than  Darwin  himself,  but  college  professors  had  to 
be  careful  in  what  they  said,  for  practically  the  whole  religious 
world  and  the  greater  part  of  college  graduates  were  not  readv 
then  to  accept  evolution.  The  bitter  feeling  of  the  anti-Darwinians 
continued  for  a  considerable  number  of  years,  as  is  shown  by  the 
following  instance.  A  little  more  than  twelve  years  after  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  "  Origin  of  Species  "  one  of  our  leading  universities 
wished  to  appoint  a  professor  of  zoology.  The  place  was  offered 
to  a  friend  of  mine  with  the  stipulation  that  he  should  never, 
directly  or  indirectly,  refer  to  evolution  in  his  lectures.  As  my 
friend  was  one  of  the  most  rabid  evolutionists  in  America,  the 
conditional  offer  seemed  amusing.  He,  of  course,  declined  and  the 
place  was  then  offered  to  one  hardly  less  radical  in  his  views,  and 
was  again  declined.  It  was  rumored  that  the  place  was  offered 
to  a  third  person  and  again  declined,  but  I  have  no  direct  knowl- 
edge that  this  was  the  case.  The  present  incumbent,  I  presume, 
believes  in  evolution,  but  probably  no  one  has  ever  taken  the  trouble 
to  ask  hli'm  whether  he  does  or  not  for,  at  the  present  day  we 
should  no  more  think  of  asking  a  professor  of  zoology  whether  he 
believes  in  evolution  than  whether  he  is  the  fortunate  owner  of  a 
tooth-brush. 
At  a  time  when  many  of  the  leading  zoologists,  including  Louis 
Agassiz,  were  strongly  opposed  to  Darwin's  views,  the  botanist, 
Asa  Gray,  exerted  a  powerful  influence  in  converting  the  public 
to  the  doctrine  of  evolution.  His  simple  and  attractive  style 
enabled  him  to  reach  an  audience  which  would  have  been  repelled 
by  the  dryness  generally  supposed  to  be  characteristic  of  scientific 
writings.  He  was  also  known  to  be  a  member  of  the  orthodox 
church  and  the  good  religious  people  of  the  country  said :  "  If  the 
orthodox  Gray  sees  in  evolution  nothing  inconsistent  with  revela- 
tion, why  may  we  not  also  accept  it  ?  "  Furthermore,  Gray  did  not 
go  too  far  in  his  views,  whereas  some  of  the  evolutionists  started 
off  on  a  wild  sea  of  speculation  whither  the  public  would  not  be 
expected  to  follow. 
Having  tried  as  far  as  the  limited  time  allows  to  give  you  an 
