And with respect to that theory of the origin of the forms of
life peopling our globe, with which Darwin's name is bound up as
closely as that of Newton with the theory of gravitation, nothing
seems to be further from the mind of the present generation than
any attempt to smother it with ridicule or to crush it by
vehemence of denunciation. "The struggle for existence," and
"Natural selection," have become household words and every-day
conceptions. The reality and the importance of the natural
processes on which Darwin founds his deductions are no more
doubted than those of growth and multiplication; and, whether the
full potency attributed to them is admitted or not, no one doubts
their vast and far-reaching significance. Wherever the
biological sciences are studied, the 'Origin of Species' lights
the paths of the investigator; wherever they are taught it
permeates the course of instruction. Nor has the influence of
Darwinian ideas been less profound, beyond the realms of Biology.
The oldest of all philosophies, that of Evolution, was bound hand
and foot and cast into utter darkness during the millennium of
theological scholasticism. But Darwin poured new life-blood into
the ancient frame; the bonds burst, and the revivified thought of
ancient Greece has proved itself to be a more adequate expression
of the universal order of things than any of the schemes which
have been accepted by the credulity and welcomed by the
superstition of seventy later generations of men.

To any one who studies the signs of the times, the emergence of
the philosophy of Evolution, in the attitude of claimant to the
throne of the world of thought, from the limbo of hated and, as
many hoped, forgotten things, is the most portentous event of the
nineteenth century. But the most effective weapons of the modern