hand over the profits to a
University fund for the endowment of biological research.

It is clearly impossible to express adequately in a single volume of
Essays the influence of Darwin's contributions to knowledge on the
subsequent progress of scientific inquiry. As Huxley said in 1885:
"Whatever be the ultimate verdict of posterity upon this or that opinion
which Mr Darwin has propounded; whatever adumbrations or anticipations
of his doctrines may be found in the writings of his predecessors; the
broad fact remains that, since the publication and by reason of the
publication of "The Origin of Species" the fundamental conceptions
and the aims of the students of living Nature have been completely
changed... But the impulse thus given to scientific thought rapidly
spread beyond the ordinarily recognised limits of Biology. Psychology,
Ethics, Cosmology were stirred to their foundations, and 'The Origin of
Species' proved itself to be the fixed point which the general doctrine
needed in order to move the world."

In the contributions to this Memorial Volume, some of the authors
have more especially concerned themselves with the results achieved by
Darwin's own work, while others pass in review the progress of research
on lines which, though unknown or but little followed in his day, are
the direct outcome of his work.

The divergence of views among biologists in regard to the origin of
species and as to the most promising directions in which to seek for
truth is illustrated by the different opinions of contributors. Whether
Darwin's views on the modus operandi of evolutionary forces receive
further confirmation in the future, or whether they are materially
modified, in no way affects the truth of the statement that, by
employing his life "in adding a little to Natural Science," he
revolutionised the world of thought. Darwin wrote in 1872 to Alfred
Russel Wallace: "How grand is the onward rush of science: it is enough
to console us for the many errors which we have committed, and for our
efforts being overlaid and forgotten in the mass of new facts and new
views which are daily turning up." In the onward rush, it is easy for
students convinced of the correctness of their own views and equally
convinced of the falsity of those of their fellow-workers to forget the
lessons of Darwin's life. In his autobiographical sketch, he tells us,
"I have steadily endeavoured to keep my mind free so as to give up any
hypothesis, howev