The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Origin of Species, by Thomas H. Huxley

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Title: The Origin of Species
From 'The Westminster Review', April 1860

Author: Thomas H. Huxley

Posting Date: January 6, 2009 [EBook #2929]
Release Date: November, 2001

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by Amy E. Zelmer

THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES

[1]

By Thomas H. Huxley

MR. DARWIN'S long-standing and well-earned scientific eminence probably
renders him indifferent to that social notoriety which passes by the
name of success; but if the calm spirit of the philosopher have not yet
wholly superseded the ambition and the vanity of the carnal man within
him, he must be well satisfied with the results of his venture in
publishing the 'Origin of Species'. Overflowing the narrow bounds of
purely scientific circles, the "species question" divides with Italy and
the Volunteers the attention of general society. Everybody has read Mr.
Darwin's book, or, at least, has given an opinion upon its merits or
demerits; pietists, whether lay or ecclesiastic, decry it with the mild
railing which sounds so charitable; bigots denounce it with ignorant
invective; old ladies of both sexes consider it a decidedly dangerous
book, and even savants, who have no better mud to throw, quote
antiquated writers to show that its author is no better than an ape
himself; while every philosophical thinker hails it as a veritable
Whitworth gun in the armoury of liberalism; and all competent
naturalists and physiologists, whatever their opinions as to the
ultimate fate of the doctrines put forth, acknowledge that the work
in which they are embodied is a solid contribution to knowledge and
inaugurates a new epoch in natural history.

Nor has the discussion of the subject been restrained within the limits
of conversation. When the public is eager and interested, reviewers must
minister to its wants; and the genuine 'litterateur' is too much in
the habit of acquiring his knowledge from the book he judges--as the
Abyssinian is said to provide himself with steaks from the ox which
carries him--to be wit