and Natural History," "The Zoology of the Voyage of the
'Beagle,'" "A Treatise on Coral Reefs, Volcanic Islands, Geological
Observations," and "A Monograph of the Cirripedia." Had Darwin died
before "The Origin of Species" was published, he would have been famous
among scientific men, although it was the abuse of theologians on the
publication of "The Origin of Species" that really made him
world-famous.

Alfred Russel Wallace, Darwin's chief competitor said that "A Monograph
on the Cirripedia" is enough upon which to found a deathless reputation.
Darwin was equally eminent in Geology, Botany and Zoology.

On November Twenty-fourth, Eighteen Hundred Fifty-nine, was published
"The Origin of Species." Murray had hesitated about accepting the work,
but on the earnest solicitation of Sir Charles Lyell, who gave his
personal guarantee to the publisher against loss, quite unknown to
Darwin, twelve hundred copies of the book were printed. The edition was
sold in one day, and who was surprised most, the author or the
publisher, it is difficult to say.

Up to this time theology had stood solidly on the biblical assertion
that mankind had sprung from one man and one woman, and that in the
beginning every species was fixed and immutable. Aristotle, three
hundred years before Christ, had suggested that, by cross-fertilization
and change of environment, new species had been and were being evoked.
But the Church had declared Aristotle a heathen, and in every school and
college of Christendom it was taught that the world and everything in it
was created in six days of twenty-four hours each, and that this
occurred four thousand and four years before Christ, on May Tenth.

Those who doubted or disputed this statement had no standing in society,
and in truth, until the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, were in
actual danger of death--heresy and treason being usually regarded as the
same thing.

Erasmus Darwin had taught that species were not immutable, but his words
were so veiled in the language of poesy that they naturally went
unchallenged. But now the grandson of Doctor Erasmus Darwin came forward
with the net result of thirty years' continuous work. "The Origin of
Species" did not attack any one's religious belief--in fact, in it the
biblical account of Creation is not once referred to. It was a calm,
judicial record of close study and observation, that seemed to prove
that life began in very lowly forms, and that it has co