Darwiniana | Page 3

be replied that they do not pretend to be systematic
or complete. They are all essays relating in some way or other to the
subject which has been, during these years, of paramount interest to

naturalists, and not much less so to most thinking people. The first
appeared between sixteen and seventeen years ago, immediately after
the publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species by Means of Natural
Selection," as a review of that volume, which, it was then foreseen, was
to initiate a revolution in general scientific opinion. Long before our
last article was written, it could be affirmed that the general doctrine of
the derivation of species (to put it comprehensively) has prevailed over
that of specific creation, at least to the extent of being the received and
presumably in some sense true conception. Far from undertaking any
general discussion of evolution, several even of Mr. Darwin's writings
have not been noticed, and topics which have been much discussed
elsewhere are not here adverted to. This applies especially to what may
be called deductive evolution--a subject which lay beyond the writer's
immediate scope, and to which neither the bent of his mind nor the line
of his studies has fitted him to do justice. If these papers are useful at
all, it will be as showing how these new views of our day are regarded
by a practical naturalist, versed in one department only (viz., Botany),
most interested in their bearings upon its special problems, one
accustomed to direct and close dealings with the facts in hand, and
disposed to rise from them only to the consideration of those general
questions upon which they throw or from which they receive
illustration.
Then as to the natural theological questions which (owing to
circumstances needless now to be recalled or explained) are here
throughout brought into what most naturalists, and some other readers,
may deem undue prominence, there are many who may be interested to
know how these increasingly prevalent views and their tendencies are
regarded by one who is scientifically, and in his own fashion, a
Darwinian, philosophically a convinced theist, and religiously an
acceptor of the "creed commonly called the Nicene," as the exponent of
the Christian faith. "Truth emerges sooner from error than from
confusion," says Bacon; and clearer views than commonly prevail upon
the points at issue regarding "religion and science" are still sufficiently
needed to justify these endeavors.
BOTANIC GARDEN, CAMBRIDGE, MASS., June, 1876.
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I
THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF
NATURAL SELECTION [I-1]
(American Journal of Science and Arts, March, 1860)

This book is already exciting much attention. Two American editions
are announced, through which it will become familiar to many of our
readers, before these pages are issued. An abstract of the argument--for
"the whole volume is one long argument," as the author states--is
unnecessary in such a case; and it would be difficult to give by
detached extracts. For the volume itself is an abstract, a prodromus of a
detailed work upon which the author has been laboring for twenty years,
and which "will take two or three more years to complete." It is
exceedingly compact; and although useful summaries are appended to
the several chapters, and a general recapitulation contains the essence
of the whole, yet much of the aroma escapes in the treble distillation, or
is so concentrated that the flavor is lost to the general or even to the
scientific reader. The volume itself--the proof-spirit--is just condensed
enough for its purpose. It will be far more widely read, and perhaps will
make deeper impression, than the elaborate work might have done,
with all its full details of the facts upon which the author's sweeping
conclusions have been grounded. At least it is a more readable book:
but all the facts that can be mustered in favor of the theory are still
likely to be needed.
Who, upon a single perusal, shall pass judgment upon a work like this,
to which twenty of the best years of the life of a most able naturalist
have been devoted? And who among those naturalists who hold a
position that entitles them to pronounce summarily upon the subject,
can be expected to divest himself for the nonce of the influence of
received and favorite systems? In fact, the controversy now opened is
not likely to be settled in an off-hand way, nor is it desirable that it
should be. A spirited conflict among opinions of every grade must
ensue, which--to borrow an illustration from the doctrine of the book
before us--may be likened to the conflict in Nature among races in the
struggle for life, which Mr. Darwin describes; through which the views
most favored by facts will be developed and tested by "Natural
Selection," the weaker ones be destroyed in the process,