Darwiniana | Page 8

ascribes to them; or whether, on
the other hand, he has been led to over-estimate the value of the
principle of natural selection, as greatly as Lamarck over-estimated his
vera causa of modification by exercise.
But there is, at all events, one advantage possessed by the more recent
writer over his predecessor. Mr. Darwin abhors mere speculation as
nature abhors a vacuum. He is as greedy of cases and precedents as any
constitutional lawyer, and all the principles he lays down are capable of
being brought to the test of observation and experiment. The path he
bids us follow professes to be, not a mere airy track, fabricated of ideal
cobwebs, but a solid and broad bridge of facts. If it be so, it will carry
us safely over many a chasm in our knowledge, and lead us to a region
free from the snares of those fascinating but barren virgins, the Final
Causes, against whom a high authority has so justly warned us. "My
sons, dig in the vineyard," were the last words of the old man in the
fable: and, though the sons found no treasure, they made their fortunes
by the grapes.

II
THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
[1860]
Mr. Darwin's long-standing and well-earned scientific eminence

probably renders him indifferent to that social notoriety which passes
by the name of success; but if the calm spirit of the philosopher have
not yet wholly superseded the ambition and the vanity of the carnal
man within him, he must be well satisfied with the results of his
venture in publishing the "Origin of Species." Overflowing the narrow
bounds of purely scientific circles, the "species question" divides with
Italy and the Volunteers the attention of general society. Everybody has
read Mr. Darwin's book, or, at least, has given an opinion upon its
merits or demerits; pietists, whether lay or ecclesiastic, decry it with the
mild railing which sounds so charitable; bigots denounce it with
ignorant invective; old ladies of both sexes consider it a decidedly
dangerous book, and even savants, who have no better mud to throw,
quote antiquated writers to show that its author is no better than an ape
himself; while every philosophical thinker hails it as a veritable
Whitworth gun in the armoury of liberalism; and all competent
naturalists and physiologists, whatever their opinions as to the ultimate
fate of the doctrines put forth, acknowledge that the work in which they
are embodied is a solid contribution to knowledge and inaugurates a
new epoch in natural history.
Nor has the discussion of the subject been restrained within the limits
of conversation. When the public is eager and interested, reviewers
must minister to its wants; and the genuine _littérateur_ is too much in
the habit of acquiring his knowledge from the book he judges--as the
Abyssinian is said to provide himself with steaks from the ox which
carries him--to be withheld from criticism of a profound scientific work
by the mere want of the requisite preliminary scientific acquirement;
while, on the other hand, the men of science who wish well to the new
views, no less than those who dispute their validity, have naturally
sought opportunities of expressing their opinions. Hence it is not
surprising that almost all the critical journals have noticed Mr. Darwin's
work at greater or less length; and so many disquisitions, of every
degree of excellence, from the poor product of ignorance, too often
stimulated by prejudice, to the fair and thoughtful essay of the candid
student of Nature, have appeared, that it seems an almost hopeless task
to attempt to say anything new upon the question.
But it may be doubted if the knowledge and acumen of prejudged
scientific opponents, and the subtlety of orthodox special pleaders,

have yet exerted their full force in mystifying the real issues of the
great controversy which has been set afoot, and whose end is hardly
likely to be seen by this generation; so that, at this eleventh hour, and
even failing anything new, it may be useful to state afresh that which is
true, and to put the fundamental positions advocated by Mr. Darwin in
such a form that they may be grasped by those whose special studies lie
in other directions. And the adoption of this course may be the more
advisable, because, notwithstanding its great deserts, and indeed partly
on account of them, the "Origin of Species" is by no means an easy
book to read--if by reading is implied the full comprehension of an
author's meaning.
We do not speak jestingly in saying that it is Mr. Darwin's misfortune
to know more about the question he has taken up than any man living.
Personally and practically exercised in zoology, in minute anatomy, in
geology; a student of geographical distribution, not on maps and in
museums