opinion. Under these circumstances, it
seems to me to require a good deal of courage to say "no serious reply
has ever been attempted"; and to chide the men of science, in lofty
tones, for their "reluctance to admit an error" which is not admitted;
and for their "slow and sulky acquiescence" in a conclusion which they
have the gravest warranty for suspecting.

Second:--

Darwin himself had lived to hear of the new solution and,
with that splendid candour which was eminent in him his
mind, though now grown old in his own early convictions, was
at least ready to entertain it, and to confess that serious
doubts had been awakened as to the truth of his famous
theory (p. 305).

I wish that Darwin's splendid candour could be conveyed by some
description of spiritual "microbe" to those who write about him. I am
not aware that Mr. Darwin ever entertained "serious doubts as to the
truth of his famous theory"; and there is tolerably good evidence to
the contrary. The second edition of his work, published in 1876,
proves that he entertained no such doubts then; a letter to Professor
Semper, whose objections, in some respects, forestalled those of Mr.
Murray, dated October 2, 1879, expresses his continued adherence to
the opinion "that the atolls and barrier reefs in the middle of the
Pacific and Indian Oceans indicate subsidence"; and the letter of my
friend Professor Judd, printed at the end of this article (which I had
perhaps better say Professor Judd had not seen) will prove that this
opinion remained unaltered to the end of his life.

Third:--

... Darwin's theory is a dream. It is not only unsound, but
it is in many respects the reverse of truth. With all his
conscientiousness, with all his caution, with all his powers
of observation, Darwin in this matter fell into errors as
profound as the abysses of the Pacific (p. 301).

Really? It seems to me that, under the circumstances, it is pretty
clear that these lines exhibit a lack of the qualities justly ascribed
to Mr. Darwin, which plunges their author into a much deeper abyss,
and one from which there is no hope of emergence.

Fourth:--

All the acclamations with which it was received were as the
shouts of an ignorant mob (p. 301).

But surely it should be added that the Coryphaeus of this ignorant
mob, the fugleman of the shouts, was one of the most accomplished
naturalists and geologists now liv