how these two seeming contradictions could be reconciled; and all sorts
of odd hypotheses were resorted to. It was supposed that the coral did
not extend so far down, but that there was a great chain of submarine
mountains stretching through the Pacific, and that the coral had grown
upon them. But only fancy what supposition that was, for you would
have to imagine that there was a chain of mountains a thousand miles or
more long, and that the top of every mountain came within 20 fathoms of
the surface of the sea, and neither rose above nor sunk beneath that
level. That is highly improbable: such a chain of mountains was never
known. Then how can you possibly account for the curious circular form
of the atolls by any supposition of this kind? I believe there was
some one who imagined that all these mountains were volcanoes, and that
the reefs had grown round the tops of the craters, so we all stuck
fast. I may say "we," though it was rather before my time. And when we
all stick fast, it is just the use of a man of genius that he comes and
shows us the meaning of the thing. He generally gives an explanation
which is so ridiculously simple that everybody is ashamed that he did
not find it out before; and the way such a discoverer is often rewarded
is by finding out that some one had made the discovery before him! I
do not mean to say that it was so in this particular instance, because
the great man who played the part of Columbus and the egg on this
occasion had, I believe, always had the full credit which he so well
deserves. The discoverer of the key to these problems was a man whose
name you know very well in connection with other matters, and I should
not wonder if some of you have heard it said that he was a superficial
kind of person who did not know much about the subject on which he
writes. He was Mr. Darwin, and this brilliant discovery of his was made
public thirty years ago, long before he became the celebrated man he
now is; and it was one of the most singular instances of that
astonishing sagacity which he possesses of drawing consequences by way