The gospel of evolution.

  • Elam, Charles, 1824-1889.
Date:
[1880]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The gospel of evolution. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    THE GOSPEL OF EVOLUTION. ON the first day of October, 1859, Mr. Darwin marked an epoch, in biological science by the publication of his Origin of Species by means of Natural Selectionand on the 9th of last month, at the Royal Institution, before a crowded and distinguished assemblage, Mr. Huxley delivered an eloquent address, in celebration of the Coming of Age of this work, and of the principles which it enunciates. Of Mr. Darwin as a naturalist it would be almost a presumption, in any one less gifted or less eminent than Mr. Huxley, to speak. His brilliant genius, and the almost boundless stores of his knowledge in all departments of animated nature,—his candid and philosophic spirit, and his evident and constant preference of truth to theory,—all these are known and appreciated wherever science has been heard of throughout the civilized world. Mr. Huxley himself is an accomplished biologist, a distinguished and successful teacher, a fascinating writer and speaker, and, to sum up all in one word, a philosopher, and one who takes large and comprehensive views of every subject that comes under his notice. Therefore, Darwin expounded and illustrated by Huxley is a most formidable combination, and one that might well quench the ardour and damp the courage of any one who wished merely to cavil. Such is, such has ever been, far from my intention. It is true that ever since the first appearance of the work in question I have been a doubter. To my mind the evidence for the theory has ever appeared utterly inadequate, strained, and even contradictory j and the theory itself has seemed to be founded upon, and supported by, suppositions that arc directly opposed to all that we know with any certainty as to the continuance of species. Speaking on the subject of scientific beliefs, Mr. Huxley says, that by doubt they are established, and open inquiry is their bosom vol. xxxvu. 3 B