'There is one thing,' says Professor Fiske, 'which a man of original scientific or philosophical4 genius in a rightly ordered world should never be called upon to do. He should never be called upon to earn a living; for that is a wretched waste of energy, in which the highest intellectual power is sure to suffer serious detriment5, and runs the risk of being frittered away into hopeless ruin.' From this unhappy necessity Charles Darwin, like his predecessor6 Lyell, was luckily free. He settled down early in a home of his own, and worked away at his own occupations, with no sordid7 need for earning the day's bread, but with[Pg 59] perfect leisure to carry out the great destiny for which the chances of the universe had singled him out. His subsequent history is the history of his wonderful and unique contributions to natural science.
The first thing to be done, of course, was the arrangement and classification of the natural history spoils gathered during the cruise, and the preparation of his own journal of the voyage for publication. The strict scientific results of the trip were described in the 'Zoology8 of the Voyage of the "Beagle,"' the different parts of which were undertaken by rising men of science of the highest distinction, under Charles Darwin's own editorship. Sir Richard Owen took in hand the fossil mammals; Waterhouse arranged their living allies; Gould discussed the birds, Jenyns the fish, and Bell the amphibians9 and reptiles10. In this vast co-operative publication Darwin thus obtained the assistance of many among the most competent specialists in the England of his day, and learned to understand his own collections by the light thrown upon them from the focussed lamps of the most minute technical learning. As for the journal, it was originally published with the general account of the cruise by Captain Fitzroy in 1839, but was afterwards set forth11 in a separate form under the title of 'A Naturalist12's Voyage Round the World.'
But while Darwin was thus engaged in arranging and classifying the animals and plants he had brought home with him, the germs of those inquiring ideas about the origin of species which we have already observed in his account of the voyage were quickening into fresh life within him. As he ruminated13 at his leisure over[Pg 60] the results of his accumulations, he was beginning to work upon the great problem with the definite and conscious resolution of solving it. 'On my return home, it occurred to me,' he says, 'in 1837, that something might perhaps be made out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it. After five years' work, I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up some short notes; these I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch14 of the conclusions that then seemed to me probable; from that period to the present day [1859] I have steadily15 pursued the same object. I hope that I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give them to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision.'
So Darwin wrote at fifty. The words are weighty and well worthy16 of consideration. They give us in a nutshell the true secret of Darwin's success in compelling the attention and assent17 of his contemporaries to his completed theory. For speculations18 and hypotheses like those of Lamarck and Erasmus Darwin, however brilliant and luminous19 they may be, the hard, dry, scientific mind cares as a rule less than nothing. Men of genius and insight like Goethe and Oken may, indeed, seize greedily upon the pregnant suggestion; their intellects are already attuned20 by nature to its due reception and assimilation; but the mere21 butterfly-catchers and plant-hunters of the world, with whom after all rests ultimately the practical acceptance or rejection22 of such a theory, can only be convinced by long and patient accumulations of facts, by infinite instances and endless examples, by exhaustive surveys[Pg 61] of the whole field of nature in a thousand petty details piecemeal23. They have to be driven by repeated beating into the right path. Everywhere they fancy they see the loophole of an objection, which must be carefully closed beforehand against them with anticipatory24 argument, as we close hedges by the wayside against the obtrusive25 donkey with a cautious bunch of thorny26 brambles. Even if Charles Darwin had hit upon the fundamental idea of natural selection, and had published it, as Wallace did, in the form of a mere splendid aper?u, he would never have revolutionised the world of biology. When the great discovery was actually promulgated27, it was easy enough to win the assent of philosophical thinkers like Herbert Spencer; easy enough, even, to gain the ready adhesion of non-biological but kindred minds, like Leslie Stephen's and John Morley's; those might all, perhaps, have been readily convinced by far less heavy and crushing artillery29 than that so triumphantly30 marshalled together in the 'Origin of Species.' But in order to command the slow and grudging31 adhesion of the rank and file of scientific workers, the 'hodmen of science,' as Professor Huxley calls them, it was needful to bring together an imposing32 array of closely serried33 facts, to secure every post in the rear before taking a single step onward34, and to bring to bear upon every antagonist35 the exact form of argument with which he was already thoroughly36 familiar. It was by carefully pursuing these safe and cautious philosophical tactics that Charles Darwin gained his great victory. Where others were pregnant, he was cogent37. He met the Dryasdusts of science on their own ground, and he put them fairly to flight with their own weapons.[Pg 62] More than that, he brought them all over in the long run as deserters into his own camp, and converted them from doubtful and suspicious foes38 into warm adherents39 of the evolutionary40 banner.
Moreover, fortunately for the world, Darwin's own mind was essentially41 one of the inductive type. If a great deductive thinker and speculator like Herbert Spencer had hit upon the self-same idea of survival of the fittest, he might have communicated it to a small following of receptive disciples42, who would have understood it and accepted it, on a priori grounds alone, and gradually passed it on to the grades beneath them; but he would never have touched the slow and cautious elephantine intellect of the masses. The common run of mankind are not deductive; they require to have everything made quite clear to them by example and instance. The English intelligence in particular shows itself as a rule congenitally incapable43 of appreciating the superior logical certitude of the deductive method. Englishmen will not even believe that the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the squares on the containing sides until they have measured and weighed as well as they are able by rude experimental devices a few selected pieces of rudely shaped rectangular paper. It was a great gain, therefore, that the task of reconstructing the course of organic evolution should fall to the lot of a highly trained and masterly intelligence of the inductive order. Darwin had first to convince himself, and then he could proceed to convince the world. He set about the task with characteristic patience and thoroughness. No man that ever lived possessed44 in a more remarkable45 degree than he did the innate46 capacity[Pg 63] for taking trouble. For five years, as a mere preliminary, he accumulated facts in immense variety, and then for the first time and in the vaguest possible way he—'allowed himself to speculate.' That brings us down to the year 1842, when the first notes of the 'Origin of Species' must have been tentatively committed to paper. It was in 1859 that the first edition of the complete work was given to the world. Compare this with the case of Newton, who similarly kept his grand idea of gravitation for many years in embryo47, until more exact measurements of the moon's mass and distance should enable him to verify it to his own satisfaction.
One other item of immense importance in the genesis of the full Darwinian doctrine48 deserves mention here—I mean, the exact moment of time occupied by Charles Darwin in the continuous history of scientific thought. A generation or two earlier, in Erasmus Darwin's days, biology had not yet arrived at the true classification of animals and plants upon an essentially hereditary49 basis. The Linn?an arrangement, then universally accepted, was wholly artificial in its main features; it distributed species without regard to their fundamental likenesses of structure and organisation50. But the natural system of Jussieu and De Candolle, by arranging plants into truly related groups, made possible the proofs of an order of affiliation51 in the vegetable kingdom; while Cuvier's similar reconstruction52 of the animal world gave a like foothold to the evolutionary philosopher in the other great department of organic nature. The recognition of kinship between the various members of the same family necessarily preceded the establishment[Pg 64] of a regular genealogical theory of life in its entirety.
Though we are here concerned mainly with Charles Darwin the thinker and writer—not with Charles Darwin the husband and father—a few words of explanation as to his private life must necessarily be added at the present point, before we pass on to consider the long, slow, and cautious brewing53 of that wonderful work, the 'Origin of Species,' Darwin returned home from the voyage of the 'Beagle' at the end of the year 1836. Soon after, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, no doubt through the influence of his friend Lyell, who was quite enthusiastic over his splendid geological investigations55 on the rate of elevation56 in the Pampas and the Cordillera. Acting57 on Lyell's advice, too, he determined58 to seek no official appointment, but to devote himself entirely59 for the rest of his life to the pursuit of science. In 1838, at the age of twenty-nine, he read before the Geological Society his paper on the 'Connection of Volcanic60 Phenomena61 with the Elevation of Mountain Chains,' when, says Lyell admiringly in a private letter, 'he opened upon De la Beche, Phillips, and others'—the veterans of the science—'his whole battery of the earthquakes and volcanoes of the Andes.' Shortly after, the audacious young man was appointed secretary to the Geological Society, a post which he filled when the voyage of the 'Beagle' was first published in 1839.
In the early part of that same year, the rising naturalist took to himself a wife from one of the houses to which he himself owed no small part of his conspicuous62 greatness. His choice fell upon his cousin,[Pg 65] Miss Emma Wedgwood, daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, of Maer Hall; and, after three years of married life in London, he settled at last at Down House, near Orpington, in Kent, where for the rest of his days he passed his time among his conservatories63 and his pigeons, his garden and his fowls64, with his children growing up quietly beside him, and the great thinking world of London within easy reach of a few minutes' journey. His private means enabled him to live the pleasant life of an English country gentleman, and devote himself unremittingly to the pursuit of science. Ill health, indeed, interfered65 sadly with his powers of work; but system and patience did wonders during his working days, which were regularly parcelled out between study and recreation, and utilised and economised in the very highest possible degree. Early to bed and early to rise, wandering unseen among the lanes and paths, or riding slowly on his favourite black cob, the great naturalist passed forty years happily and usefully at Down, where all the village knew and loved him. A man of singular simplicity66 and largeness of heart, Charles Darwin never really learnt to know his own greatness. And that charming innocence68 and ignorance of his real value made the value itself all the greater. His moral qualities, indeed, were no less admirable and unique in their way than his intellectual faculties69. To that charming candour and delightful70 unostentatiousness which everybody must have noticed in his published writings, he united in private life a kindliness71 of disposition72, a width of sympathy, and a ready generosity73 which made him as much beloved by his friends as he was admired and respected by all Europe. The very[Pg 66] servants who came beneath his roof stopped there for the most part during their whole lifetime. In his earlier years at Down, the quiet Kentish home was constantly enlivened by the visits of men like Lyell, Huxley, Hooker, Lubbock, and Wollaston. During his later days, it was the Mecca of a world-wide scientific and philosophic3 pilgrimage, where all the greatest men our age has produced sought at times the rare honour of sitting before the face of the immortal74 master. But to the very last Darwin himself never seemed to discover that he was anything more than just an average man of science among his natural peers.
Shortly after Darwin went to Down he began one long and memorable75 experiment, which in itself casts a flood of light upon his patient and painstaking76 method of inquiry77. Two years before, he had read at the Geological Society a paper on the 'Formation of Mould,' which more than thirty years later he expanded into his famous treatise78 on the 'Action of Earthworms.' His uncle and father-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood, suggested to him that the apparent sinking of stones on the surface might really be due to earthworm castings. So, as soon as he had some land of his own to experiment upon, he began, in 1842, to spread broken chalk over a field at Down, in which, twenty-nine years later, in 1871, a trench79 was dug to test the results. What other naturalist ever waited so long and so patiently to discover the upshot of a single experiment? Is it wonderful that a man who worked like that should succeed, not by faith but by logical power, in removing mountains?
Unfortunately, we do not know the exact date when Darwin first read Malthus. But that the perusal80 of[Pg 67] that remarkable book formed a crisis and turning-point in his mental development we know from his own distinct statement in a letter to Haeckel, prefixed to the brilliant German evolutionist's 'History of Creation.' 'It seemed to me probable,' says Darwin, speaking of his own early development, 'that allied81 species were descended82 from a common ancestor. But during several years I could not conceive how each form could have been modified so as to become admirably adapted to its place in nature. I began therefore to study domesticated83 animals and cultivated plants, and after a time perceived that man's power of selecting and breeding from certain individuals was the most powerful of all means in the production of new races. Having attended to the habits of animals and their relations to the surrounding conditions, I was able to realise the severe struggle for existence to which all organisms are subjected; and my geological observations had allowed me to appreciate to a certain extent the duration of past geological periods. With my mind thus prepared I fortunately happened to read Malthus's "Essay on Population" and the idea of natural selection through the struggle for existence at once occurred to me. Of all the subordinate points in the theory, the last which I understood was the cause of the tendency in the descendants from a common progenitor84 to diverge85 in character.'
It is impossible, indeed, to overrate the importance of Malthus, viewed as a schoolmaster to bring men to Darwin, and to bring Darwin himself to the truth. Without the 'Essay on the Principle of Population' it is quite conceivable that we should never have had the 'Origin of Species' or the 'Descent of Man.'[Pg 68]
At the same time, Darwin had not been idle in other departments of scientific work. Side by side with his collections for his final effort he had been busy on his valuable treatise upon Coral Reefs, in which he proved, mainly from his own observations on the Keeling archipelago, that atolls owe their origin to a subsidence of the supporting ocean-floor, the rate of upward growth of the reefs keeping pace on the whole with the gradual depression of the sea-bottom. 'No more admirable example of scientific method,' says Professor Geikie forty years later, 'was ever given to the world; and even if he had written nothing else, this treatise alone would have placed Darwin in the very front of investigators86 of nature.' But, from our present psychological and historical point of view, as a moment in the development of Darwin's influence, and therefore of the evolutionary impulse in general, it possesses a still greater and more profound importance, because the work in which the theory is unfolded forms a perfect masterpiece of thorough and comprehensive inductive method, and gained for its author a well-deserved reputation as a sound and sober scientific inquirer. The acquisition of such a reputation, afterwards increased by the publication of the monograph87 on the Family Cirripedia (in 1851), proved of immense use to Charles Darwin in the fierce battle which was to rage around the unconscious body of the 'Origin of Species.' To be 'sound' is everywhere of incalculable value; to have approved oneself to the slow and cautious intelligence of the Philistine88 classes is a mighty89 spear and shield for a strong man; but in England, and above all in scientific England, it is absolutely indispensable to the thinker who would[Pg 69] accomplish any great revolution. Soundness is to the world of science what respectability is to the world of business—the sine qua non for successfully gaining even a hearing from established personages.
To read the book on Coral Reefs is indeed to take a lesson of the deepest value in applied90 inductive canons. Every fact is duly marshalled: every conclusion is drawn91 by the truest and most legitimate92 process from careful observation or crucial experiment. Bit by bit, Darwin shows most admirably that, through gradual submergence, fringing reefs are developed into barrier-reefs, and these again into atolls or lagoon93 islands; and incidentally he throws a vivid light on the slow secular94 movements upward or downward for ever taking place in the world's crust. But the value of the work as a geological record, great as it is, is as nothing compared with its value as a training exercise in inductive logic28. Darwin was now learning by experience how to use his own immense powers.
Meanwhile, the environment too had been gradually moving. In 1832, the year after young Darwin set out upon his cruise, Lyell published the first edition of his 'Principles of Geology,' establishing once for all the uniformitarian concept of that branch of science. In 1836, the year when he returned, Rafinesque, in his 'New Flora95 of North America,' had accepted within certain cramping96 limits the idea that 'all species might once have been varieties, and that many varieties are gradually becoming species by assuming constant and peculiar97 characters.' Haldeman in Boston, and Grant at University College, London, were teaching from their professorial chairs the self-same novel and revolutionary[Pg 70] doctrine. At last, in 1844, Robert Chambers98 published anonymously100 his famous and much-debated 'Vestiges101 of Creation,' which brought down the question of evolution versus102 creation from the senate of savants to the arena103 of the mere general public, and set up at once a universal fever of inquiry into the mysterious question of the origin of species. Chambers himself was a man rather of general knowledge and some native philosophical insight than of any marked scientific accuracy or depth. His work in its original form displayed comparatively little acquaintance with the vast groundwork of the question at issue—zoological, botanical, geological, and so forth—and in Charles Darwin's own opinion showed 'a great want of scientific caution.' But its graphic104 style, its vivid picturesqueness105, and to the world at large the startling novelty of its brilliant and piquant106 suggestions, made it burst at once into an unwonted popularity for a work of so distinctly philosophical a character. In nine years it leaped rapidly through no less than ten successive editions, and remained until the publication of the 'Origin of Species' the chief authoritative107 exponent108 in England of the still struggling evolutionary principle.
The 'Vestiges of Creation' may be succinctly109 described as Lamarck and water, the watery110 element being due in part to the unnecessary obtrusion111 (more Scotico) of a metaphysical and theological principle into the physical universe. Chambers himself, in his latest edition (before the book was finally killed by the advent112 of Darwinism), thus briefly113 describes his main concepts: 'The several series of animated114 beings, from the simplest and oldest up to the highest and most recent, are, under[Pg 71] the providence115 of God, the results, first, of an impulse which has been imparted to the forms of life, advancing them, in definite times, by generation, through grades of organisation, terminating in the highest dicotyledons and vertebrata, these grades being few in number, and generally marked by intervals116 of organic character, which we find to be a practical difficulty in ascertaining117 affinities118; second, of another impulse connected with the vital forces, tending, in the course of generations, to modify organic structures in accordance with external circumstances, as food, the nature of the habitat, and the meteoric119 agencies.' Now it is clear at once that these two supposed 'impulses' are really quite miraculous120 in their essence. They do not help us at all to a distinct physical and realisable conception of any natural agency whereby species became differentiated121 one from the other. They lay the whole burden of species-making upon a single primordial122 supernatural impetus123, imparted to the first living germ by the will of the Creator, and acting ever since continuously it is true, but none the less miraculously124 for all that. For many creations Chambers substitutes one single long creative nisus: where Darwin saw natural selection, his Scotch125 predecessor saw a deus ex machina, helping126 on the course of organic development by a constant but unseen interference from above. He supposed evolution to be predetermined by some intrinsic and externally implanted proclivity127. In short, Chambers's theory is Lamarck's theologised, and spoilt in the process.
The book had nevertheless a most prodigious128 and perfectly129 unprecedented130 success. The secret of its authorship was keenly debated and jealously kept. The[Pg 72] most ridiculous surmises131 as to its anonymous99 origin were everywhere afloat. Some attributed it to Thackeray, and some to Prince Albert, some to Lyell, some to Sir John Herschel, and some to Charles Darwin himself. Obscurantists thought it a wicked book; 'intellectual' people thought it an advanced book. As a matter of fact it was neither the one nor the other. It was just a pale and colourless transcript132 of the old familiar teleological133 Lamarckism. Yet it did good in its generation. The public at large were induced by its ephemeral vogue134 to interest themselves in a question to which they had never previously135 given even a passing thought, though more practised biologists of evolutionary tendencies were grieved at heart that evolution should first have been popularly presented to the English world under so unscientific, garbled136, and mutilated a form. From the philosophic side, Herbert Spencer found 'this ascription of organic evolution to some aptitude137 naturally possessed by organisms or miraculously imposed upon them' to be 'one of those explanations which explain nothing—a shaping of ignorance into the semblance138 of knowledge. The cause assigned,' he says, 'is not a true cause—not a cause assimilable to known causes—not a cause that can be anywhere shown to produce analogous139 effects. It is a cause unrepresentable in thought: one of those illegitimate symbolic140 conceptions which cannot by any mental process be elaborated into a real conception.' From the scientific side, on the other hand, Darwin felt sadly the inaccuracy and want of profound technical knowledge everywhere displayed by the anonymous author. These things might naturally cause the enemy to blaspheme.[Pg 73] No worse calamity141, indeed, can happen to a great truth than for its defence to be intrusted to inefficient142 hands. Nevertheless, long after, in the 'Origin of Species,' the great naturalist wrote with generous appreciation143 of the 'Vestiges of Creation,' 'In my own opinion it has done excellent service in this country in calling attention to the subject, in removing prejudice, and in thus preparing the ground for the reception of analogous views.'
Still Darwin gave no sign. A flaccid, cartilaginous, unphilosophic evolutionism had full possession of the field for the moment, and claimed, as it were, to be the genuine representative of the young and vigorous biological creed144, while he himself was in truth the real heir to all the honours of the situation. He was in possession of the master-key which alone could unlock the bars that opposed the progress of evolution, and still he waited. He could afford to wait. He was diligently145 collecting, amassing146, investigating; eagerly reading every new systematic147 work, every book of travels, every scientific journal, every record of sport, or exploration, or discovery, to extract from the dead mass of undigested fact whatever item of implicit67 value might swell148 the definite co-ordinated series of notes in his own commonplace books for the now distinctly contemplated149 'Origin of Species.' His way was to make all sure behind him, to summon up all his facts in irresistible150 array, and never to set out upon a public progress until he was secure against all possible attacks of the ever-watchful and alert enemy in the rear. Few men would have had strength of mind enough to resist the temptation offered by the publication of the 'Vestiges of Creation,' and the extraordinary success attained151 by so flabby a[Pg 74] presentation of the evolutionary case: Darwin resisted it, and he did wisely.
We may, however, take it for granted, I doubt not, that it was the appearance and success of Chambers's invertebrate152 book which induced Darwin, in 1844 (the year of its publication), to enlarge his short notes 'into a sketch of the conclusions which then seemed to him probable.' This sketch he showed to Dr. (now Sir Joseph) Hooker, no doubt as a precaution to ensure his own claim of priority against any future possible competitor. And having thus eased his mind for the moment, he continued to observe, to read, to devour153 'Transactions,' to collate154 instances, with indefatigable155 persistence156 for fifteen years longer. If any man mentally measures out fifteen years of his own life, and bethinks him of how long a space it seems when thus deliberately157 pictured, he will be able to realise a little more definitely—but only a little—how profound was the patience, the self-denial, the single-mindedness of Darwin's intense search after the ultimate truths of natural science.
What was the sketch that he thus committed to paper in 1844, and submitted to the judgment158 of his friend Hooker? It was the germ of the theory of natural selection. According to that theory, organic development is due to the survival of the fittest among innumerable variations, good, bad, and indifferent, from one or more parent stocks. Darwin's reading of Malthus had suggested to him (apparently as early as the date of publication of the 'Naturalist's Journal') the idea that every species of plant and animal must always be producing a far greater number of seeds, eggs, germs, or young offspring than could possibly be needed for[Pg 75] the maintenance of the average number of the species. Of these young, by far the greater number must always perish from generation to generation, for want of space, of food, of air, of raw material. The survivors159 in each brood must be those naturally best adapted for survival. The many would be eaten, starved, overrun, or crowded out; the few that survive would be those that possessed any special means of defence against aggressors, any special advantage for escaping starvation, any special protection against overrunning or overcrowding foes. Animals and plants, Darwin found on inquiry and investigation54, tended to vary under diverse circumstances from the parent or parents that originally produced them. These variations were usually infinitesimal in amount, but sometimes more considerable or even striking. If any particular variation tended in any way to preserve the life of the creatures that exhibited it, beyond the average of their like competitors, that variation would in the long run survive, and the individuals that possessed it, being thus favoured in the struggle for existence, would replace the less adapted form from which they sprang. Darwinism is Malthusianism on the large scale: it is the application of the calculus160 of population to the wide facts of universal life.
In one sense, indeed, it may be said that, given Malthus on the one hand and the Lamarckian evolutionism on the other, some great man somewhere must sooner or later, almost of necessity, have combined the two, and hit out the doctrine of natural selection as we actually know it. Quite so; but then the point is just this: Darwin was the great man in question; he did the work which in the very essence of things some[Pg 76] such great man was naturally and inevitably161 predestined to do. You can always easily manage to get on without any particular great man, provided, of course, you have ready to hand another equally able great man by whom to replace him in the scheme of existence. But how many ordinary naturalists162 possess the width of mind and universality of interest which would prompt them to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest a politico-economical treatise of the calibre of Malthus? How many, having done so, have the keenness of vision to perceive the ensuing biological implications? How many, having seen them, have the skill and the patience to work up the infinite chaos163 of botanical and zoological detail into the far-reaching generalisations of the 'Origin of Species'? Merely to have caught at the grand idea is in itself no small achievement; others did so and deserve all honour for their insight; but to flesh it out with all the minute care and conclusive164 force of Darwin's masterpiece is a thousand times a greater and nobler monument of human endeavour.
During the fifteen years from 1844 to 1859, however, Darwin's pen was by no means idle. In the first-named year he published his 'Geological Observations on Volcanic Islands'—part of the 'Beagle' exploration series; in 1846 he followed this up by his 'Geological Observations on South America;' in 1851 he gave to the world his monograph on 'Recent Barnacles;' and in 1853, his treatise on the fossil species of the same family. But all these works of restricted interest remained always subsidiary to the one great central task of his entire lifetime, the preparation of his projected volume on the Origin of Species.[Pg 77]
All through the middle decades of the century Darwin continued to labour at his vast accumulation of illustrative facts; and side by side with his continuous toil165, outside opinion kept paving the way for the final acceptance of his lucid166 ideas. The public was buying and reading all the time its ten editions of the 'Vestiges of Creation.' It was slowly digesting Lyell's 'Principles of Geology,' in which the old cataclysmic theories were featly demolished167, and the uniformitarian conception of a past gradually and insensibly merging168 into the present was conclusively169 established. It was getting accustomed to statements like those of the younger St. Hilaire, in 1850, that specific characters may be modified by changes in the environing conditions, and that the modifications170 thus produced may often be of generic171 value—may make a difference so great that we must regard the product not merely as belonging to a distinct species, but even to a distinct genus or higher kind. In 1852 Herbert Spencer published in the 'Leader' his remarkable essay, contrasting the theories of creation and evolution, as applied to organic beings, with all the biting force of his profound intelligence; and in 1855, the same encyclop?dic philosopher put forth the first rough sketch of his 'Principles of Psychology172,' in which he took the lead in treating the phenomena of mind from the point of view of gradual development. In that extraordinary work, the philosopher of evolution traced the origin of all mental powers and faculties by slow gradations from the very simplest subjective173 elements. The 'Principles of Psychology' preceded the 'Origin of Species' by nearly five years; the first collected volume of Mr. Spencer's[Pg 78] essays preceded Darwin's work by some twelve months. Baden-Powell's essay on the 'Philosophy of Creation' (much debated and condemned174 in ecclesiastical circles), and Professor Owen's somewhat contradictory175 utterances176 on the nature of types and archetypal ideas, also helped to keep alive interest in the problem of origins up to the very moment of the final appearance of Darwin's great and splendid solution.
It is interesting during these intermediate years to watch from time to time the occasional side-hints of Darwin's activity and of the interest it aroused among his scientific contemporaries. In 1854, for example, Sir Charles Lyell notes, after an evening at Darwin's, how Sir Joseph Hooker astonished him with an account of that strange orchid177, Catasetum, which bears three totally distinct kinds of flowers on the same plant; 'It will figure,' he says, 'in C. Darwin's book on species, with many other "ugly facts," as Hooker, clinging like me to the orthodox faith, calls these and other abnormal vagaries178.' On a similar occasion, a little later, Lyell asks, after meeting 'Huxley, Hooker, and Wollaston at Darwin's,' 'After all, did we not come from an ourang?' Last of all, in 1857, Darwin himself writes an anticipatory letter to his American friend, Asa Gray, in which he mentions 'six points'—the cardinal179 conceptions of the 'Origin of Species.' His book is now fairly under weigh; he speaks of it himself to acquaintance and correspondents as an acknowledged project.
Events were growing ripe for the birth. A lucky accident precipitated180 its parturition181 in the course of the year 1858.
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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devoted
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philosophic
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philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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detriment
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| n.损害；损害物，造成损害的根源 | |
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predecessor
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sordid
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zoology
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amphibians
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| 两栖动物( amphibian的名词复数 )； 水陆两用车； 水旱两生植物； 水陆两用飞行器 | |
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reptiles
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forth
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naturalist
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| n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者) | |
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ruminated
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| v.沉思( ruminate的过去式和过去分词 )；反复考虑；反刍；倒嚼 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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speculations
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| n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断 | |
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luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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attuned
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| v.使协调( attune的过去式和过去分词 )；调音 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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rejection
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| n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃 | |
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piecemeal
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| adj.零碎的；n.片，块；adv.逐渐地；v.弄成碎块 | |
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anticipatory
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| adj.预想的，预期的 | |
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obtrusive
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| adj.显眼的；冒失的 | |
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26
thorny
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| adj.多刺的，棘手的 | |
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27
promulgated
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| v.宣扬（某事物）( promulgate的过去式和过去分词 )；传播；公布；颁布（法令、新法律等） | |
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28
logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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29
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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30
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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31
grudging
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| adj.勉强的，吝啬的 | |
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32
imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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33
serried
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| adj.拥挤的；密集的 | |
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34
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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35
antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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36
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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37
cogent
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| adj.强有力的，有说服力的 | |
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38
foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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39
adherents
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| n.支持者，拥护者( adherent的名词复数 )；党羽；徒子徒孙 | |
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40
evolutionary
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| adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的 | |
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41
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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42
disciples
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| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
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43
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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44
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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45
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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46
innate
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| adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的 | |
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47
embryo
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| n.胚胎，萌芽的事物 | |
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48
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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49
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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50
organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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51
affiliation
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| n.联系，联合 | |
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52
reconstruction
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| n.重建，再现，复原 | |
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53
brewing
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| n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式 | |
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54
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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55
investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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56
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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57
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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58
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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59
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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60
volcanic
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| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
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61
phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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62
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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63
conservatories
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| n.（培植植物的）温室，暖房( conservatory的名词复数 ) | |
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64
fowls
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| 鸟( fowl的名词复数 )； 禽肉； 既不是这； 非驴非马 | |
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65
interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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66
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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67
implicit
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| a.暗示的，含蓄的，不明晰的，绝对的 | |
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68
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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69
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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70
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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71
kindliness
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| n.厚道，亲切，友好的行为 | |
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72
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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73
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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74
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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75
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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76
painstaking
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| adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的 | |
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77
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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78
treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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79
trench
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| n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕 | |
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80
perusal
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| n.细读，熟读；目测 | |
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81
allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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82
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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83
domesticated
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|
| adj.喜欢家庭生活的；（指动物）被驯养了的v.驯化( domesticate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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84
progenitor
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| n.祖先，先驱 | |
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85
diverge
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| v.分叉，分歧，离题，使...岔开，使转向 | |
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86
investigators
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| n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 ) | |
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87
monograph
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| n.专题文章，专题著作 | |
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88
philistine
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| n.庸俗的人；adj.市侩的，庸俗的 | |
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89
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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90
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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91
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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92
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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93
lagoon
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| n.泻湖，咸水湖 | |
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94
secular
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| n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的 | |
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95
flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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96
cramping
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| 图像压缩 | |
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97
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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98
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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99
anonymous
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| adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的 | |
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100
anonymously
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| ad.用匿名的方式 | |
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101
vestiges
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| 残余部分( vestige的名词复数 )； 遗迹； 痕迹； 毫不 | |
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102
versus
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| prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下 | |
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103
arena
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| n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台 | |
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104
graphic
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| adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的 | |
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105
picturesqueness
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106
piquant
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| adj.辛辣的，开胃的，令人兴奋的 | |
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107
authoritative
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| adj.有权威的，可相信的；命令式的；官方的 | |
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108
exponent
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| n.倡导者，拥护者；代表人物；指数，幂 | |
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109
succinctly
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| adv.简洁地；简洁地，简便地 | |
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110
watery
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| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
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111
obtrusion
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| n.强制，莽撞 | |
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112
advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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113
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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114
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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115
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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116
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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117
ascertaining
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的现在分词 ) | |
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118
affinities
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| n.密切关系( affinity的名词复数 )；亲近；（生性）喜爱；类同 | |
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119
meteoric
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| adj.流星的，转瞬即逝的，突然的 | |
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120
miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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121
differentiated
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| 区分，区别，辨别( differentiate的过去式和过去分词 )； 区别对待； 表明…间的差别，构成…间差别的特征 | |
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122
primordial
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| adj.原始的；最初的 | |
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123
impetus
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| n.推动，促进，刺激；推动力 | |
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124
miraculously
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| ad.奇迹般地 | |
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125
scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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126
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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127
proclivity
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| n.倾向，癖性 | |
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128
prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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129
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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130
unprecedented
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| adj.无前例的，新奇的 | |
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131
surmises
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| v.臆测，推断( surmise的第三人称单数 )；揣测；猜想 | |
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132
transcript
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| n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书 | |
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133
teleological
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| adj.目的论的 | |
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134
Vogue
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| n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的 | |
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135
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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136
garbled
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| adj.（指信息）混乱的，引起误解的v.对（事实）歪曲，对（文章等）断章取义，窜改( garble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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137
aptitude
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| n.(学习方面的)才能，资质，天资 | |
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138
semblance
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| n.外貌，外表 | |
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139
analogous
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| adj.相似的；类似的 | |
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140
symbolic
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| adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的 | |
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141
calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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142
inefficient
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| adj.效率低的，无效的 | |
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143
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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144
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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145
diligently
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| ad.industriously;carefully | |
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146
amassing
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| v.积累，积聚( amass的现在分词 ) | |
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systematic
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| adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的 | |
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148
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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149
contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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151
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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152
invertebrate
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| n.无脊椎动物 | |
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153
devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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154
collate
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| vt.(仔细)核对，对照；(书籍装订前)整理 | |
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155
indefatigable
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| adj.不知疲倦的，不屈不挠的 | |
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156
persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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157
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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158
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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159
survivors
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| 幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
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160
calculus
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| n.微积分；结石 | |
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161
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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162
naturalists
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| n.博物学家( naturalist的名词复数 )；（文学艺术的）自然主义者 | |
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163
chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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164
conclusive
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| adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的 | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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lucid
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| adj.明白易懂的，清晰的，头脑清楚的 | |
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167
demolished
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| v.摧毁( demolish的过去式和过去分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光 | |
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168
merging
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| 合并（分类） | |
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169
conclusively
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| adv.令人信服地，确凿地 | |
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170
modifications
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| n.缓和( modification的名词复数 )；限制；更改；改变 | |
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171
generic
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| adj.一般的，普通的，共有的 | |
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172
psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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173
subjective
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| a.主观(上)的，个人的 | |
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174
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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175
contradictory
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| adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立 | |
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176
utterances
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| n.发声( utterance的名词复数 )；说话方式；语调；言论 | |
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177
orchid
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| n.兰花，淡紫色 | |
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178
vagaries
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| n.奇想( vagary的名词复数 )；异想天开；异常行为；难以预测的情况 | |
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179
cardinal
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| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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180
precipitated
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| v.（突如其来地）使发生( precipitate的过去式和过去分词 )；促成；猛然摔下；使沉淀 | |
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181
parturition
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| n.生产，分娩 | |
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