cept "Darwinism" as
a working hypothesis, and see what could be made of it. Either it
would prove its capacity to elucidate the facts of organic life, or it
would break down under the strain. This was surely the dictate of
common sense; and, for once, common sense carried the day. The result
has been that complete volte-face of the whole scientific world, which
must seem so surprising to the present generation. I do not mean to
say that all the leaders of biological science have avowed themselves
Darwinians; but I do not think that there is a single zoologist, or
botanist, or palaeontologist, among the multitude of active workers of
this generation, who is other than an evolutionist, profoundly
influenced by Darwin's views. Whatever may be the ultimate fate of the
particular theory put forth by Darwin, I venture to affirm that, so far
as my knowledge goes, all the ingenuity and all the learning of hostile
critics have not enabled them to adduce a solitary fact, of which it
can be said, this is irreconcilable with the Darwinian theory. In the
prodigious variety and complexity of organic nature, there are
multitudes of phenomena which are not deducible from any
generalisations we have yet reached. But the same may be said of every
other class of natural objects. I believe that astronomers cannot yet
get the moon's motions into perfect accordance with the theory of
gravitation.

It would be inappropriate, even if it were possible, to discuss the
difficulties and unresolved problems which have hitherto met the
evolutionist, and which will probably continue to puzzle him for
generations to come, in the course of this brief history of the
reception of Mr. Darwin's great work. But there are two or three
objections of a more general character, based, or supposed to be based,
upon philosophical and theological foundations, which were loudly
expressed in the early days of the Darwinian controversy, and which,
though they have been answered over and over again, crop up now and
then to the present day.

The most singular of these, perhaps immortal, fallacies, which live on,
Tithonus-like, when sense and force have long deserted them, is that
which charges Mr. Darwin with having attempted to reinstate the old
pagan goddess, Chance. It is said that he supposes variations to come
about "by chance," and that the fittest survive the "chances" of the
struggle for existence, and thus "chance" is substituted for
providential d