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ON THE RECEPTION OF THE
'ORIGIN OF SPECIES'


by

PROFESSOR THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY



FROM THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF CHARLES DARWIN

EDITED BY FRANCIS DARWIN




ON THE RECEPTION OF THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.'

To the present generation, that is to say, the people a few years onthe hither and thither side of thirty, the name of Charles Darwinstands alongside of those of Isaac Newton and Michael Faraday; and,like them, calls up the grand ideal of a searcher after truth andinterpreter of Nature. They think of him who bore it as a rarecombination of genius, industry, and unswerving veracity, who earnedhis place among the most famous men of the age by sheer native power,in the teeth of a gale of popular prejudice, and uncheered by a sign offavour or appreciation from the official fountains of honour; as onewho in spite of an acute sensitiveness to praise and blame, andnotwithstanding provocations which might have excused any outbreak,kept himself clear of all envy, hatred, and malice, nor dealt otherwisethan fairly and justly with the unfairness and injustice which wasshowered upon him; while, to the end of his days, he was ready tolisten with patience and respect to the most insignificant ofreasonable objectors.

And with respect to that theory of the origin of the forms of lifepeopling our globe, with which Darwin's name is bound up as closely asthat of Newton with the theory of gravitation, nothing seems to befurther from the mind of the present generation than any attempt tosmother it with ridicule or to crush it by vehemence of denunciation."The struggle for existence," and "Natural selection," have becomehousehold words and every-day conceptions. The reality and theimportance of the natural processes on which Darwin founds hisdeductions are no more doubted than those of growth and multiplication;and, whether the full potency attributed to them is admitted or not, noone doubts their vast and far-reaching significance. Wherever thebiological sciences are studied, the 'Origin of Species' lights thepaths of the investigator; wherever they are taught it permeates thecourse of instruction. Nor has the influence of Darwinian ideas beenless profound, beyond the realms of Biology. The oldest of allphilosophies, that of Evolution, was bound hand and foot and cast intoutter darkness during the millennium of theological scholasticism. ButDarwin poured new life-blood into the ancient frame; the bonds burst,and the revivified thought of ancient Greece has proved itself to be amore adequate expression of the universal order of things than any ofthe schemes which have been accepted by the credulity and welcomed bythe superstition of seventy later generations of men.

To any one who studies the signs of the times, the emergence of thephilosophy of Evolution, in the attitude of claimant to the throne ofthe world of thought, from the limbo of hated and, as many hoped,forgotten things, is the most portentous event of the nineteenthcentury. But the most effective weapons of the modern champions ofEvolution were fabricated by Darwin; and the 'Origin of Species' hasenlisted a formidable body of combatants, trained in the severe schoolof Physical Science, whose ears might have long remained deaf to thespeculations of a priori philosophers.

I do not think any candid or instructed person will deny the truth ofthat w

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