rove its capacity to elucidate the fact
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 zooelogist, 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 has not enabled them to adduce a
solitary fact of which it can be said that it 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 generalisation 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."

These quotations make plain the historical fact that Huxley was
convinced of evolution because Darwin, by his theory of natural
selection, brought forward an actual cause that could be seen in
operation, and that was competent to produce new species. As soon as the
"flash of light" came, it revealed to Huxley the vast store of evidence
that he had unconsciously accumulated, and it set him at once to work
collecting more evidence. If we bear in mind the distinction between
evolution and natural selection, the well-known subsequent history of
the relations between Huxley and what was known popularly as Darwinism
becomes clear and intelligible. From first to last he accepted
evolution; from first to last he accepted natural selection as by far
the most reasonable hypothesis that had been brought forward, and as
infinitely more in accordance with the observed facts of nature than any
theory of the immediate action of supernatural creative power. As time
went on, and the influence of Darwin's theory made evolution acceptable
to a wider and wider ra