years of reflection upon his
subject, Mr. Darwin should have written as above, especially in such a
place, if his mind was clear about his own position. Immediately after
the admission of a certain amount of miscalculation there comes a more
or less exculpatory sentence, which sounds so right that ninety-nine
people out of a hundred would walk through it, unless led by some
exigency of their own position to examine it closely, but which yet,
upon examination, proves to be as nearly meaningless as a sentence can
be."[364]

No one, to my knowledge, has impugned the justice of this criticism, and
I may say that further study of Mr. Darwin's works has only strengthened
my conviction of the confusion and inaccuracy of thought, which detracts
so greatly from their value.

So little is it generally understood that "evolution" and what is called
"Darwinism" convey indeed the same main conclusion, but that this
conclusion has been reached by two distinct roads, one of which is
impregnable, while the other has already fallen into the hands of the
enemy, that in the last November number of the 'Nineteenth Century'
Professor Tyndall, while referring to descent with modification or
evolution, speaks of it as though it were one and inseparable from Mr.
Darwin's theory that it has come about mainly by means of natural
selection. He writes:--

"_Darwin's theory_, as pointed out nine or ten years ago by Helmholtz
and Hooker, was then exactly in this condition of growth; and had they
to speak of the subject to-day they would be able to announce an
enormous strengthening of the theoretic fibre. Fissures in continuity
which then existed, and which left little hope of being ever spanned,
have been since bridged over, so that the further _the theory_ is tested
the more fully does it harmonize with progressive experience and
discovery. We shall never probably fill all the gaps; but this will not
prevent a profound belief in the truth of _the theory_ from taking root
in the general mind. Much less will it justify a total denial of _the
theory_. The man of science, who assumes in such a case the position of
a denier, is sure to be stranded and isolated."

This is in the true vein of the professional and orthodox scientist; of
that new orthodoxy which is clamouring for endowment, and which would
step into the Pope's shoes to-morrow, if we would only let it. If
Professor Tyndall means that those who deny evolution will find
themselves presen