y anyone
who will turn the pages of the memorial volume--_Darwin and Modern
Science_--published fifty years after the _Origin of Species_. Therein,
not only zoologists, botanists and geologists, but physicists, chemists,
anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, philologists,
historians--and even politicians and theologians--are found testifying
to the important part which Darwin's great work has played, in
revolutionising ideas and moulding thought in connexion with all
branches of knowledge and speculation.

CHAPTER XII

THE PLACE OF LYELL AND DARWIN IN HISTORY

From the account given in the foregoing pages, it will be seen
that--without detracting from the merits of their predecessors or the
value of the labours of their contemporaries--we must ascribe the work
of establishing on a firm foundation of observation and reasoning the
doctrine of evolution--both in the inorganic and the organic world--to
the investigations and writings of Lyell and Darwin.

Lyell had to oppose the geologists of his day, who led by Buckland in
this country and by Cuvier on the continent, were almost, without
exception, hopelessly wedded to the doctrines of 'Catastrophism,' and
bitterly antagonistic to all ideas savouring of continuity or evolution.
And, in the same way, Darwin, at the outset, found himself face to face
with a similarly hostile attitude, on the part of biologists, with
respect to the mode of appearance of new species of plants and animals.

While Darwin doubtless derived his inspiration, and much valuable aid,
from the _Principles of Geology_, and its gifted author, yet Lyell, with
all his clearness of vision, logical faculty and literary skill, did not
possess the strong faith and resolute courage--to say nothing of that
wonderful tenacity of purpose and power of research which were such
striking characteristics of Darwin--which would have enabled him to do
for the organic what he did for the inorganic world. If it be true, as
Darwin used to suggest, that the _Origin of Species_ might never have
been written had not Lyell first produced the _Principles of Geology_, I
believe it is no less certain that the crowning of Lyell's great
edifice, by the full application of his principles to the world of
living beings, could only have been accomplished by a man possessing, in
unique combination, the powers of observation, experiment, reasoning and
criticism, joined to unswerving determination, which distinguished