The soil, indeed, had been carefully broken for it beforehand: Lamarck and St. Hilaire, Spencer and Chambers3, had ploughed and harrowed in all diligence; and the minds of men were thoroughly4 ready for the assimilation of the new doctrine5. But the seed itself, too, was the right germ for the exact moment; it contained within itself the vivifying principle that enabled it to grow and wax exceeding great where kindred germs before had withered6 away, or had borne but scanty7 and immature8 fruit.
Two conditions contributed to this result, one external, the other internal.
First for the less important external consideration. Darwin himself was a sound man with an established reputation for solidity and learning. That gained for his theory from the very first outset universal respect[Pg 113] and a fair hearing. Herbert Spencer was known to be a philosopher: and the practical English nation mistrusts philosophers: those people probe too deep and soar too high for any sensible person to follow them in all their flights. Robert Chambers, the unknown author of 'Vestiges9 of Creation,' was a shallow sciolist; it was whispered abroad that he was even inaccurate10 and slovenly11 in his facts: and your scientific plodder12 detests13 the very shadow of minute inaccuracy, though it speak with the tongues of men and angels, and be bound up with all the grasp and power of a Newton or a Goethe. But Charles Darwin was a known personage, an F.R.S., a distinguished14 authority upon coral reefs and barnacles, a great geologist15, a great biologist, a great observer and indefatigable16 collector. His book came into the public hands stamped with the imprimatur of official recognition. Darwin was the father of the infant theory; Lyell and Hooker stood for its sponsors. The world could not afford to despise its contents; they could not brand its author offhand17 as a clever dreamer or a foolish amateur, or consign18 him to the dreaded19 English limbo21 of the 'mere22 theorist.'
Next, for the other and far more important internal consideration. The book itself was one of the greatest, the most learned, the most lucid23, the most logical, the most crushing, the most conclusive24, that the world had ever yet seen. Step by step, and principle by principle, it proved every point in its progress triumphantly25 before it went on to demonstrate the next. So vast an array of facts so thoroughly in hand had never before been mustered27 and marshalled in favour of any biological theory. Those who had insight to learn and[Pg 114] understand were convinced at once by the cogency28 of the argument; those who had not were overpowered and silenced by the weight of the authority and the mass of the learning. A hot battle burst forth1 at once, no doubt, around the successful volume; but it was one of those battles which are aroused only by great truths,—a battle in which the victory is a foregone conclusion, and the rancour of the assailants the highest compliment to the prowess of the assailed29.
Darwin himself, in his quiet country home at Down, was simply astonished at the rapid success of his own work. The first edition was published at the end of November 1859; it was exhausted30 almost immediately, and a second was got ready in hot haste by the beginning of January 1860. In less than six weeks the book had become famous, and Darwin found himself the centre of a European contest, waged with exceeding bitterness, over the truth or falsity of his wonderful volume. To the world at large Darwinism and evolution became at once synonymous terms. The same people who would entirely31 ascribe the Protestant Reformation to the account of Luther, and the inductive philosophy to the account of Bacon, also believed, in the simplicity32 of their hearts, that the whole vast evolutionary34 movement was due at bottom to that very insidious35 and dangerous book of Mr. Darwin's.
The fact is, profound as had been the impulses in the evolutionary direction among men of science before Darwin's work appeared at all, immense as were the throes and pangs36 of labour throughout all Europe which preceded and accompanied its actual birth, when it came at last it came to the general world of unscientific readers with all the sudden vividness and novelty of a[Pg 115] tremendous earthquake. Long predestined, it was yet wholly unexpected. Men at large had known nothing or next to nothing of this colossal38 but hidden revolutionary force which had been gathering39 head and energy for so many years unseen within the bowels40 of the earth; and now that its outer manifestation41 had actually burst upon them, they felt the solid ground of dogmatic security bodily giving way beneath their feet, and knew not where to turn in their extremity42 for support. Naturally, it was the theological interest that felt itself at first most forcibly assailed. The first few chapters of Genesis, or rather the belief in their scientific and historical character, already sapped by the revelations of geology, seemed to orthodox defenders43 to be fatally undermined if the Darwinian hypothesis were once to meet with general recognition. The first resource of menaced orthodoxy is always to deny the alleged44 facts; the second is to patch up tardily45 the feeble and hollow modus vivendi of an artificial pact46. On this occasion the orthodox acted strictly47 after their kind: but to their credit it should be added that they yielded gracefully48 in the long run to the unanimous voice of scientific opinion. Twenty-three years later, when all that was mortal of Charles Darwin was being borne with pomp and pageantry to its last resting-place in Westminster Abbey, enlightened orthodoxy, with generous oblivion, ratified49 a truce50 over the dead body of the great leader, and, outgrowing51 its original dread20 of naturalistic interpretations53, accepted his theory without reserve as 'not necessarily hostile to the main fundamental truths of religion.' Let us render justice to the vanquished54 in a memorable55 struggle. Churchmen[Pg 116] followed respectfully to the grave with frank and noble inconsistency the honoured remains56 of the very teacher whom less than a quarter of a century earlier they had naturally dreaded as loosening the traditional foundations of all accepted religion and morality.
But if the attack was fierce and bitter, the defence was assisted by a sudden access of powerful forces from friendly quarters. A few of the elder generation of naturalists57 held out, indeed, for various shorter or longer periods; some of them never came into the camp at all, but lingered on, left behind, like stragglers from the onward58 march, by the younger biologists, in isolated59 non-conformity on the lonely heights of austere60 officialism. Their business was to ticket and docket and pigeon-hole, not to venture abroad on untried wings into the airy regions of philosophical61 speculation62. The elder men, in fact, had many of them lost that elasticity63 and modifiability of intellect which is necessary for the reception of new and revolutionary fundamental concepts. A mind that has hardened down into the last stage of extreme maturity64 may assimilate fresh facts and fresh minor65 principles, but it cannot assimilate fresh synthetic66 systems of the entire cosmos67. Moreover, some of the elder thinkers were committed beforehand to opposing views, with which they lacked either the courage or the intellectual power to break; while others were entangled68 by religious restrictions69, and unable to free themselves from the cramping70 fetters71 of a narrow orthodoxy. But even among his own contemporaries and seniors Darwin found not a few whose minds were thoroughly prepared beforehand for the reception of his lucid and luminous72 hypothesis; while the younger naturalists,[Pg 117] with the plasticity of youth, assimilated almost to a man, with the utmost avidity, the great truths thus showered down upon them by the preacher of evolution.
Sir Joseph Hooker and Professor Huxley were among the first to give in their adhesion and stand up boldly for the new truth by the side of the reckless and disturbing innovator73. In June 1859, nearly a year after the reading of the Darwin-Wallace papers at the Linnean Society, but five months previously74 to the publication of the 'Origin of Species,' Huxley lectured at the Royal Institution on 'Persistent75 Types of Animal Life,' and declared against the old barren theory of successive creations, in favour of the new and fruitful hypothesis of gradual modification76. In December 1859, a month later than the appearance of Darwin's book, Hooker published his 'Introduction to the Flora77 of Australia,' in the first part of which he championed the belief in the descent and modification of species, and enforced his views by many original observations drawn78 from the domain79 of botanical science. For fifteen years, as Darwin himself gratefully observed in his introduction to the 'Origin of Species,' that learned botanist80 had shared the secret of natural selection, and aided its author in every possible way by his large stores of knowledge and his excellent judgment81. Bates, the naturalist52 on the Amazons, followed fast with his beautiful and striking theory of mimicry82, a crucial instance well explained. The facts of the strange disguises which birds and insects often assume had long been present to his acute mind, and he hailed with delight the discovery of the new principle, which at once enabled him to reduce[Pg 118] them with ease to symmetry and order. To Herbert Spencer, an evolutionist in fibre from the very beginning, the fresh doctrine of natural selection came like a powerful ally and an unexpected assistant in deciphering the deep fundamental problems on which he was at that moment actually engaged; and in his 'Principles of Biology,' even then in contemplation, he at once adopted and utilised the new truth with all the keen and vigorous insight of his profound analytic83 and synthetic intellect. The first part of that important work was issued to subscribers just three years after the original appearance of the 'Origin of Species;' the first volume was fully2 completed in October 1864. It is to Mr. Spencer that we owe the pellucid84 expression 'survival of the fittest,' which conveys even better than Darwin's own phrase, 'natural selection,' the essential element added by the 'Origin of Species' to the pre-existing evolutionary conception.
The British Association for the Advancement85 of Science held its big annual doctrinaire86 picnic the next summer after the publication of Darwin's book, at Oxford87. The Oxford meeting was a stormy and a well-remembered one. The 'Origin of Species' was there discussed and attacked before a biological section strangely enough presided over by Darwin's old Cambridge teacher, Professor Henslow. Though then a beneficed parish priest, Henslow had the boldness frankly88 to avow89 his own acceptance of his great pupil's startling conclusions. Huxley followed in the same path, as did also Lubbock and Hooker. On the whole, the evolutionists were already in the ascendant; the fresh young intellects especially being quick to seize[Pg 119] upon the new pabulum so generously dealt out to them by the new evolutionism.
Among scientific minds of the first order, Lyell alone in England, heavily weighted by theological preconceptions, for awhile hung back. All his life long, as his letters show us, the great geologist had felt the powerful spell of the Lamarckian hypothesis continually enticing90 him with its seductive charm. He had fought against it blindly, in the passionate91 endeavour to preserve what he thought his higher faith in the separate and divine creation of man; but ever and anon he returned anew to the biological Circe with a fresh fascination92, as the moth93 returns to the beautiful flame that has scorched94 and singed95 it. In a well-known passage in the earlier editions of his 'Principles of Geology,' the father of uniformitarianism gives at length his own reasons for dissenting96 from the doctrine of evolution as then set forth; and even after Darwin's discovery had supplied him with a new clue, a vera causa, a sufficient power for the modification of species into fresh forms, theological difficulties made him cling still as long as possible to the old theory of the origin of man which he loved to describe as that of the 'archangel ruined.' He was loth to exchange this cherished belief for the degrading alternative (as it approved itself to him) of the ape elevated. But in the end, with the fearless honesty of a searcher after truth, he gave way slowly and regretfully. Always looking back with something like remorse97 to the flesh-pots of the ecclesiastical Egypt, with its enticing visions of fallen grandeur98, the great thinker whose uniformitarian theory of geology had more than aught else paved the way for the gradual[Pg 120] acceptance of Darwin's evolutionism, came out at last from the house of bondage99, and nobly ranged himself on the side of what his intellect judged to be the truth of nature, though his emotions urged him hard to blind his judgment and to neglect its lights for an emotional figment. Science has no more pathetic figure than that of the old philosopher, in his sixty-sixth year, throwing himself with all the eagerness of youth into what he had long considered the wrong scale, and vigorously wrecking100 in the 'Antiquity101 of Man' what seemed to the dimmed vision of his own emotional nature the very foundations of his beloved creed102. But still he did it. He came out and was separate. In his own idiomatic103 language, he found at last that 'we must go the whole ourang;' and, deep as was the pang37 that the recantation cost him, he formally retracted104 the condemnation105 of 'transformism' in his earlier works, and accepted, however unwillingly107, the theory he had so often and so deliberately108 rejected.
The 'Antiquity of Man' came out in February 1863, some three years after the 'Origin of Species.' For some time speculation had been active over the strange hatchets109 which Boucher de Perthes had recently unearthed110 among the Abbeville drift—shapeless masses of chipped flint rudely fashioned into the form of an axe111, which we now call pal112?olithic implements113, and know to be the handicraft of preglacial men. But until Lyell's authoritative114 work appeared the unscientific public could not tell exactly what to think of these curious and almost unhuman-looking objects. Lyell at once set all doubts at rest; the magic of his name silenced the derisive115 whispers of the dissidents. Already, in the previous year,[Pg 121] the first fasciculus of Colenso's famous work on the Pentateuch had dealt a serious blow from the ecclesiastical and critical side at the authenticity116 and historical truth of the Mosaic117 cosmogony. Lyell now from the scientific side completely demolished118 its literal truth, as ordinarily interpreted, by throwing back the primitive119 origin of our race into a dim past of immeasurable antiquity. In so doing he was clearing the way for Charles Darwin's second great work, 'The Descent of Man;' and by incorporating in his book Huxley's remarks on the Neanderthal skull120, and much similar evolutionary matter, he advertised the new creed in the animal origin of our race with all the acquired weight of his immense and justly-deserved European reputation. As a matter of taste, Lyell did not relish121 the application of evolutionism to his own species. But, with that perfect loyalty122 to fact which he shared so completely with Charles Darwin, as soon as he found the evidence overwhelming, he gave in. By that grudging123 concession124 he immensely strengthened the position of the new creed. 'I plead guilty,' he writes to Sir Joseph Hooker, 'to going farther in my reasoning towards transmutation than in my sentiments and imagination, and perhaps for that very reason I shall lead more people on to Darwin and you, than one who, being born later, like Lubbock, has comparatively little to abandon of old and long-cherished ideas, which constituted the charm to me of the theoretical part of the science in my earlier days.' And to Darwin himself he writes regretfully. 'The descent of man from the brutes125 takes away much of the charm from my speculations126 on the past relating to such matters.' This very reluctance[Pg 122] itself told powerfully in favour of Charles Darwin's novel theories: there is no evidence more valuable to a cause than that which it extorts127 by moral force, in spite of himself, from the faltering128 lips of an unwilling106 witness.
The same year that saw the publication of Lyell's 'Antiquity of Man' saw also the first appearance of Huxley's work on 'Man's Place in Nature.' Darwin himself had been anxious rather than otherwise to avoid too close reference to the implications of his theory as regards the origin and destiny of the human race. He had desired that his strictly scientific views on the rise of specific distinctions should be judged entirely on their own merits, unhampered by the interference of real or supposed theological and ethical129 considerations. His own language on all such subjects, wherever he was compelled to trench130 on them in the 'Origin of Species,' was guarded and conciliatory; he scarcely referred at all to man or his history; and his occasional notices of the moving principle and first cause of the entire cosmos were reverential and religious in the truest sense and in the highest degree. But you cannot let loose a moral whirlwind, and then attempt to direct its course; you cannot open the floodgates of opinion or of speculation, and then pretend to set limits to the scope of their restless motion. Darwin soon found out that people would insist in drawing inferences beyond what was written, and in seeing implicit33 conclusions when they were not definitely formulated131 in the words of their author. 'Man is perennially132 interesting to man,' says the great chaotic133 American thinker; and whatever all-embracing truth you set before him, you may be sure[Pg 123] that man will see in it chiefly the implications that most closely affect his own happiness and his own destiny. The biological question of the origin of species is a sufficiently134 wide one, but it includes also, among other cases, the origin of the very familiar species Homo sapiens of Linn?us. Some theologians jumped at once at the conclusion, right or wrong, that if Darwinism were true man was nothing more than a developed monkey, the immortal135 soul was an exploded myth, the foundations of religion itself were shattered, and the wave of infidelity was doomed136 to swamp the whole of Christendom with its blank nihilism. Scientific men, on the other hand, drew the conclusion that man must be descended137, like other mammals, from some common early vertebrate ancestor, and that the current views of his origin and destiny must be largely modified by the evolutionary creed. Of this profound scientific belief Professor Huxley's maiden138 work was the earliest outcome.
Meantime, on the continent of Europe and over-sea in America, the Darwinian theory was being hotly debated and warmly defended. France, coldly sceptical and critical, positive rather than imaginative in matters of science, and little prone139 by native cast of mind to the evolutionary attitude, stood aloof140 to a great extent from the onward course of the general movement. Here and there, to be sure, a Gaudry or a Ribot, a Delboeuf or a De Candolle (the two latter a Liège Belgian and a Genevan Swiss) might heartily141 throw himself into the new ideas, and contribute whole squadrons of geological or botanical fact to the final victory. Yet, as a whole, the dry and cautious French intelligence, ever inclined[Pg 124] to a scientific opportunism, preferred for the moment to stand by expectant and await the result of the European consensus142. But philosophical Germany, on the other hand, beaming enthusiasm from its myriad143 spectacles, eagerly welcomed the novel ideas, and proclaimed from the housetops the evolutionary faith as a main plank144 in the rising platform of the newly-roused Kulturkampf. Fritz Müller began with all the ardour of a fresh convert to collect his admirable 'Facts for Darwin;' his brother Hermann sat down with indomitable patience, like the master's own, to watch the ceaseless action of the bees and butterflies in the fertilisation of flowers. Rütimeyer applied145 the Darwinian principles to the explanation of mammalian relationships, and Haeckel set to work upon his vast reconstructive 'History of Creation,' a largely speculative146 work which, with all its faults, distinctly carried forward the evolutionary impulse, and set fresh researchers working upon new lines, to confirm or to disprove its audacious imaginings. In America, Asa Gray gave to the young creed the high authority of his well-known name, and Chauncey Wright helped it onward on the road with all the restrained force of his singular and oblique147 but powerful and original personality. If Agassiz and Dawson still hesitated, Fiske and Youmans were ardent148 in the faith. If critical Boston put up its eye-glass doubtfully, Chicago and St. Louis were ready for conversion149. Everywhere Darwin and Darwinism became as household words; it was the singular fate of the great prophet of evolution, alone almost among the sons of men, to hear his own name familiarly twisted during his own lifetime into a colloquial150 adjective, and to see[Pg 125] the Darwinian theory and the errors of Darwinism staring him in the face a hundred times a day from every newspaper and every periodical.
Of course the 'Origin of Species' was largely translated at once into all the civilised languages of Europe, Russian as well as French, Dutch as well as German, Swedish as well as Italian, Spanish as well as Hungarian, nay151 even, at last, transcending152 narrow continental153 limits, Japanese as well as Hindustani. The revolution which it was rapidly effecting was indeed a revolution in every mode of thought and feeling as well as a revolution in mere restricted biological opinion. But all this time, the modest, single-minded, and unassuming author was working unmoved among his plants and pigeons in his home at Down, regardless of the European fame he was so quickly acquiring, and anxious only to bring to a termination the vast work which he still contemplated154. A little more than eleven years intervened between the publication of the 'Origin of Species,' in 1859, and the first appearance of the 'Descent of Man,' in 1871. The interval156 was occupied in carrying out in part the gigantic scheme of his original collections for the full treatment of the development theory. The work published in 1859 Darwin regarded merely as an abstract and preliminary outline of his full opinions: 'No one can feel more sensible than I do,' he wrote, 'of the necessity of hereafter publishing in detail all the facts, with references, on which my conclusions have been grounded.' The marvellously learned work on the 'Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' which came out in two volumes in 1867, formed the first instalment[Pg 126] of this long-projected treatise157. The second part, as he told Mr. Fiske, was to have treated of the variation of animals and plants through natural selection; while the third part would have dealt at length with the phenomena158 of morphology, of classification, and of distribution in space and time. But these latter portions of the work were never written. To say the truth, they were never needed. So universal was the recognition among the younger men of Darwin's discovery, that before ten years were over innumerable workers were pushing out the consequences of natural selection into every field of biology and pal?ontology. It seemed no longer so necessary as it had once seemed to write the larger and more elaborate treatise he had originally contemplated.
The volume on the variation of animals and plants contained also Darwin's one solitary159 contribution to the pure speculative philosophy of life—his 'Provisional Hypothesis of Pangenesis,' by which he strove to account on philosophical principles for the general facts of physical and mental heredity. Not to mince160 matters, it was his one conspicuous161 failure, and is now pretty universally admitted as such. Let not the love of the biographer deceive us; Darwin was here attempting a task ultra vires. As already observed, his mind, vast as it was, leaned rather to the concrete than to the abstract side: he lacked the distinctively162 metaphysical and speculative twist. Strange to say, too, his abortive163 theory appeared some years later than Herbert Spencer's magnificent all-sided conception of 'Physiological164 Units,' put forth expressly to meet the self-same difficulty. But while Darwin's hypothesis is rudely[Pg 127] materialistic165, Herbert Spencer's is built up by an acute and subtle analytical166 perception of all the analogous167 facts in universal nature. It is a singular instance of a crude and essentially168 unphilosophic conception endeavouring to replace a finished and delicate philosophical idea.
Earlier still, in 1862, Darwin had published his wonderful and fascinating book on the 'Fertilisation of Orchids169.' It is delightful170 to contemplate155 the picture of the unruffled naturalist, in the midst of that universal storm of ecclesiastical obloquy171 and scientific enthusiasm which he had roused throughout Europe, sitting down calmly in his Kentish conservatory172 to watch the behaviour of catasetums and masdevallias, and to work out the details of his chosen subject, with that marvellous patience of which he was so great a master, in the pettiest minuti? of fertilisation as displayed by a single highly developed family of plants. Whoever wishes to learn the full profundity173 of Darwin's researches, into every point that he set himself to investigate, cannot do better than turn for a while to the consideration of that exquisite174 treatise on one of the quaintest175 fairylands of science. He will there learn by what an extraordinary wealth of cunning devices natural selection has ensured the due conveyance176 of the fecundating pollen177 from stamens to stigmas178 within the limits of a single group of vegetable organisms. Here the fertilising mass is gummed automatically between the eyes of the exploring bee, and then bent180 round by the drying of its stalk so as to come in contact with the stigmatic surface. There the pollen club is jerked out elastically181 by a sensitive fibre, and actually[Pg 128] flung by its irritable182 antenn? at the unconscious head of the fertilising insect. In one case, the lip of the flower secretes183 moisture and forms a sort of cold bath, which wets the wings of the bees, so compelling them to creep out of the bucket by a passage close to the anthers and stigma179; in another case, the honey is concealed184 at the bottom of so long a tube that only the proper fertilising moth with a proboscis185 of ten or eleven inches in length can probe the deep recess186 in which it is hidden. These, and a hundred other similar instances, were all carefully considered and described by the great naturalist as the by-work with which he filled up one of the intervals187 between his greater and more comprehensive treatises188.
In the decade between 1860 and 1870 the progress of Darwinism was rapid and continuous. One by one, the few scientific men who still held out were overborne by the weight of evidence. Geology kept supplying fresh instances of transitional forms; the progress of research in unexplored countries kept adding to our knowledge of existing intermediate species and varieties. During those ten years, Herbert Spencer published his 'First Principles,' his 'Biology,' and the remodelled189 form of his 'Psychology190;' Huxley brought out 'Man's Place in Nature,' the 'Lectures on Comparative Anatomy,' and the 'Introduction to the Classification of Animals;' Wallace produced his 'Malay Archipelago' and his 'Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection;' and Galton wrote his admirable work on 'Hereditary191 Genius,' of which his own family is so remarkable192 an instance. Tyndall and Lewes had long since signified their warm adhesion. At Oxford,[Pg 129] Rolleston was bringing up a fresh generation of young biologists in the new faith; at Cambridge, Darwin's old university, a whole school of brilliant and accurate physiologists193 was beginning to make itself both felt and heard in the world of science. In the domain of anthropology194, Tylor was welcoming the assistance of the new ideas, while Lubbock was engaged on his kindred investigations195 into the Origin of Civilisation196 and the Primitive Condition of Man. All these diverse lines of thought both showed the wide-spread influence of Darwin's first great work, and led up to the preparation of his second, in which he dealt with the history and development of the human race. And what was thus true of England was equally true of the civilised world, regarded as a whole: everywhere the great evolutionary movement was well in progress; everywhere the impulse sent forth from that quiet Kentish home was permeating197 and quickening the entire pulse of intelligent humanity.
Why was it that the 'Origin of Species' possessed198 this extraordinary vitalising and kinetic199 power, this germinal energy, this contagious200 force, beyond all other forms of evolutionism previously promulgated201? Why did the world, that listened so coldly to Lamarck and Chambers, turn so ready an ear to Charles Darwin and natural selection? Partly, no doubt, because in the fulness of time the moment had come and the prophet had arisen. All great movements are long brewing202, and burst out at last (like the Reformation and the French Revolution) with explosive energy. But the cause is largely to be found, also, I believe, in the peculiar203 nature of the Darwinian solution. True, a[Pg 130] thoroughly logical mind, a mind of the very highest order, would have said even before Darwin, 'Creation can have no possible place in the physical series of things at all. How organisms came to be I do not yet exactly see; but I am sure they must have come to be by some merely physical process, if we could only find it out.' And such minds were all actually evolutionary even before Darwin had made the modus operandi of evolution intelligible204. But most people are not so clear-sighted. They require to have everything proved to them by the strictest collocation of actual instances. They will not believe unless one rise from the dead. There are men who rejected the raw doctrine of special creation on evidence adduced; and there are men who never even for a moment entertained it as conceivable. The former compose the mass of the scientific world, and it was for their conversion that the Darwinian hypothesis was so highly salutary. As Professor Fiske rightly remarks, 'The truth is that before the publication of the "Origin of Species" there was no opinion whatever current respecting the subject that deserved to be called a scientific hypothesis. That the more complex forms of life must have come into existence through some process of development from simpler forms was no doubt the only sensible and rational view to take of the subject; but in a vague and general opinion of this sort there is nothing that is properly scientific. A scientific hypothesis must connect the phenomena with which it deals by alleging205 a "true cause;" and before 1859 no one had suggested a "true cause" for the origination of new species, although the problem was one over which every philosophical naturalist had puzzled since the[Pg 131] beginning of the century. This explains why Mr. Darwin's success was so rapid and complete, and it also explains why he came so near being anticipated.' To put it briefly206, a priori, creation is from the very first unbelievable; but, as a matter of evidence, Lamarck failed to make evolution comprehensible, or to give a rationale of its mode of action, while Darwin's theory of natural selection succeeded in doing so for those who awaited a posteriori proof. Hence Darwin was able to convert the world, where Lamarck had only been able to stir up enquiry among the picked spirits of the scientific and philosophical coterie207. Therein lies the true secret of his rapid, his brilliant, and his triumphant26 progress. He had found out not only that it was so, but how it was so, too. In Aristotelian phrase, he had discovered the π?? as well as the ?τι.
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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chambers
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thoroughly
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doctrine
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withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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scanty
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immature
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vestiges
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inaccurate
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slovenly
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plodder
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detests
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distinguished
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geologist
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indefatigable
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offhand
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consign
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| vt.寄售（货品），托运，交托，委托 | |
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dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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limbo
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| n.地狱的边缘；监狱 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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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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conclusive
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| adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的 | |
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triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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mustered
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| v.集合，召集，集结（尤指部队）( muster的过去式和过去分词 )；（自他人处）搜集某事物；聚集；激发 | |
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28
cogency
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| n.说服力；adj.有说服力的 | |
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assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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30
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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31
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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32
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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33
implicit
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| a.暗示的，含蓄的，不明晰的，绝对的 | |
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evolutionary
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| adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的 | |
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35
insidious
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| adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧 | |
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36
pangs
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| 突然的剧痛( pang的名词复数 )； 悲痛 | |
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37
pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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38
colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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39
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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40
bowels
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| n.肠，内脏，内部；肠( bowel的名词复数 )；内部，最深处 | |
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41
manifestation
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| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
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42
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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defenders
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| n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者 | |
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44
alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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45
tardily
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| adv.缓慢 | |
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46
pact
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| n.合同，条约，公约，协定 | |
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47
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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48
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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49
ratified
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| v.批准，签认（合约等）( ratify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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51
outgrowing
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| 长[发展] 得超过（某物）的范围( outgrow的现在分词 )； 长[发展]得不能再要（某物）； 长得比…快； 生长速度超过 | |
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52
naturalist
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| n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者) | |
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53
interpretations
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| n.解释( interpretation的名词复数 )；表演；演绎；理解 | |
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54
vanquished
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| v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
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memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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56
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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57
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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58
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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59
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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60
austere
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| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
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61
philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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62
speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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63
elasticity
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| n.弹性，伸缩力 | |
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64
maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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65
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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66
synthetic
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| adj.合成的，人工的；综合的；n.人工制品 | |
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67
cosmos
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| n.宇宙；秩序，和谐 | |
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68
entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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69
restrictions
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| 约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则） | |
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70
cramping
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| 图像压缩 | |
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71
fetters
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| n.脚镣( fetter的名词复数 )；束缚v.给…上脚镣，束缚( fetter的第三人称单数 ) | |
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72
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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73
innovator
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| n.改革者；创新者 | |
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74
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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75
persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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76
modification
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| n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻 | |
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77
flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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78
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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79
domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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80
botanist
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| n.植物学家 | |
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81
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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82
mimicry
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| n.（生物）拟态，模仿 | |
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83
analytic
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| adj.分析的，用分析方法的 | |
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84
pellucid
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| adj.透明的，简单的 | |
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85
advancement
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| n.前进，促进，提升 | |
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86
doctrinaire
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| adj.空论的 | |
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87
Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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88
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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89
avow
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| v.承认，公开宣称 | |
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90
enticing
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| adj.迷人的；诱人的 | |
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91
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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92
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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93
moth
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| n.蛾，蛀虫 | |
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94
scorched
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| 烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦 | |
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95
singed
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| v.浅表烧焦( singe的过去式和过去分词 )；（毛发）燎，烧焦尖端[边儿] | |
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96
dissenting
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| adj.不同意的 | |
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97
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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98
grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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99
bondage
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| n.奴役，束缚 | |
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100
wrecking
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| 破坏 | |
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101
antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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102
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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103
idiomatic
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| adj.成语的，符合语言习惯的 | |
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104
retracted
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| v.撤回或撤消( retract的过去式和过去分词 )；拒绝执行或遵守；缩回；拉回 | |
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105
condemnation
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| n.谴责; 定罪 | |
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106
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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107
unwillingly
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| adv.不情愿地 | |
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108
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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109
hatchets
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| n.短柄小斧( hatchet的名词复数 )；恶毒攻击；诽谤；休战 | |
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110
unearthed
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| 出土的（考古） | |
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111
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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112
pal
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| n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友 | |
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113
implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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114
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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115
derisive
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| adj.嘲弄的 | |
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116
authenticity
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| n.真实性 | |
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117
mosaic
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| n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的 | |
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118
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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119
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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120
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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121
relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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122
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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123
grudging
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| adj.勉强的，吝啬的 | |
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124
concession
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| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
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125
brutes
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| 兽( brute的名词复数 )； 畜生； 残酷无情的人； 兽性 | |
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126
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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127
extorts
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| v.敲诈( extort的第三人称单数 )；曲解 | |
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128
faltering
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| 犹豫的，支吾的，蹒跚的 | |
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129
ethical
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| adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的 | |
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130
trench
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| n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕 | |
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131
formulated
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| v.构想出( formulate的过去式和过去分词 )；规划；确切地阐述；用公式表示 | |
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132
perennially
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| adv.经常出现地；长期地；持久地；永久地 | |
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133
chaotic
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| adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的 | |
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134
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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135
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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136
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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137
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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138
maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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139
prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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140
aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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141
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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142
consensus
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| n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识 | |
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143
myriad
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| adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量 | |
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144
plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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145
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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146
speculative
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| adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的 | |
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147
oblique
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| adj.斜的，倾斜的，无诚意的，不坦率的 | |
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148
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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conversion
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| n.转化，转换，转变 | |
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colloquial
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| adj.口语的，会话的 | |
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151
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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transcending
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| 超出或超越（经验、信念、描写能力等）的范围( transcend的现在分词 )； 优于或胜过… | |
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153
continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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155
contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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157
treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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158
phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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159
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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mince
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| n.切碎物；v.切碎，矫揉做作地说 | |
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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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distinctively
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| adv.特殊地，区别地 | |
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abortive
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| adj.不成功的，发育不全的 | |
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164
physiological
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| adj.生理学的，生理学上的 | |
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materialistic
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| a.唯物主义的，物质享乐主义的 | |
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analytical
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| adj.分析的；用分析法的 | |
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analogous
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| adj.相似的；类似的 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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169
orchids
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| n.兰花( orchid的名词复数 ) | |
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170
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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171
obloquy
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| n.斥责，大骂 | |
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172
conservatory
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| n.温室，音乐学院；adj.保存性的，有保存力的 | |
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profundity
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| n.渊博；深奥，深刻 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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quaintest
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| adj.古色古香的( quaint的最高级 )；少见的，古怪的 | |
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conveyance
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| n.(不动产等的)转让，让与；转让证书；传送；运送；表达；（正）运输工具 | |
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177
pollen
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| n.[植]花粉 | |
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178
stigmas
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| n.耻辱的标记，瑕疵( stigma的名词复数 ) | |
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stigma
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| n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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181
elastically
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| adv.有弹性地，伸缩自如地 | |
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182
irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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183
secretes
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| v.（尤指动物或植物器官）分泌( secrete的第三人称单数 )；隐匿，隐藏 | |
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184
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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185
proboscis
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| n.（象的）长鼻 | |
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186
recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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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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treatises
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| n.专题著作，专题论文，专著( treatise的名词复数 ) | |
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189
remodelled
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| v.改变…的结构[形状]( remodel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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191
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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physiologists
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| n.生理学者( physiologist的名词复数 )；生理学( physiology的名词复数 )；生理机能 | |
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194
anthropology
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| n.人类学 | |
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195
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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196
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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197
permeating
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| 弥漫( permeate的现在分词 )； 遍布； 渗入； 渗透 | |
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198
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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kinetic
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| adj.运动的；动力学的 | |
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200
contagious
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| adj.传染性的，有感染力的 | |
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201
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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202
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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203
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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204
intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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205
alleging
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| 断言，宣称，辩解( allege的现在分词 ) | |
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206
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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207
coterie
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| n.(有共同兴趣的)小团体，小圈子 | |
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