THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES*

by Thomas H. Huxley




[footnote] *'The Westminster Review', April 1860.


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wholly superseded the ambition and the vanity of the carnal man within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.