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The Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature
THE COMING OF EVOLUTION
Cambridge University Press
London: Fetter Lane, E.C.
C. F. Clay, Manager
[Illustration]
Edinburgh: 100, Princes Street
London: H. K. Lewis, 136, Gower Street, W.C.
Berlin: A. Asher and Co.
Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons
Bombay and Calcutta: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.
All rights reserved
[Illustration: Charles Darwin]
THE COMING OF EVOLUTION
The Story of a Great Revolution in Science
by
JOHN W. JUDD
C.B., LL.D., F.R.S.
Formerly Professor of Geology and
Dean of the Royal College of Science
Cambridge:
at the University Press
1910
Cambridge:
Printed by John Clay, M.A.
At the University Press
_With the exception of the coat of arms at the foot, the design
on the title page is a reproduction of one used by the earliest
known Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521_
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. Introductory 1
II. Origin of the Idea of Evolution 5
III. The Development of the Idea of Evolution to the
Inorganic World 14
IV. The Triumph of Catastrophism over Evolution 20
V. The Revolt of Scrope and Lyell against Catastrophism 33
VI. _The Principles of Geology_ 55
VII. The Influence of Lyell's Works 68
VIII. Early Attempts to establish the Doctrine of Evolution
for the Organic World 82
IX. Darwin and Wallace: The Theory of Natural Selection 95
X. _The Origin of Species_ 115
XI. The Influence of Darwin's Works 136
XII. The Place of Lyell and Darwin in History 149
Notes 160
Index 165
PLATES
Charles Darwin _Frontispiece_
G. Poulett Scrope _to face p. 35_
Charles Lyell " " 41
Alfred R. Wallace " " 110
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
When the history of the Nineteenth Century--'the Wonderful Century,' as
it has, not inaptly, been called--comes to be written, a foremost place
must be assigned to that great movement by which evolution has become
the dominant factor in scientific progress, while its influence has been
felt in every sphere of human speculation and effort. At the beginning
of the Century, the few who ventured to entertain evolutionary ideas
were regarded by their scientific contemporaries, as wild visionaries or
harmless 'cranks'--by the world at large, as ignorant 'quacks' or
'designing atheists.' At the end of the Century, evolution had not only
become the guiding principle of naturalists, but had profoundly
influenced every branch of physical science; at the same time,
suggesting new trains of thought and permeating the language of
philologists, historians, sociologists, politicians--and even of
theologians.
How has this revolution in thought--the greatest which has occurred in
modern times--been brought about? What manner of men were they who were
the leaders in this great movement? What the influences that led them to
discard the old views and adopt new ones? And, under what circumstances
were they able to produce the works which so profoundly affected the
opinions of the day? These are the questions with which I propose to
deal in the following pages.
It has been my own rare good fortune to have enjoyed the friendship of
all the great leaders in this important movement--of Huxley, Hooker,
Scrope, Wallace, Lyell and Darwin--and, with some of them, I was long on
terms of affectionate intimacy. From their own lips I have learned of
incidents, and listened to anecdotes, bearing on the events of a
memorable past. Would that I could hope to bring before my readers, in
all their nobility, a vivid picture of the characteristics of the men to
whom science and the world owe so much!
For it is not only by their intellectual greatness that we are
impressed. Every man of science is proud, and justly proud, of the
grandeur of character, the unexampled generosity, the modesty and
simplicity which distinguished these pioneers in a great cause. It is
unfortunately true, that the votaries of science--like the cultivators
of art and literature--have sometimes so far forgotten their high
vocation, as to have been more careful about the priority of their
personal claims than of the purity of their own motives--they have
sometimes, it must be sadly admitted, allowed self-interest to obscure
the interests of science. But in the story we have to relate there are
no 'regrettable incidents' to be deplored; never has there occurred any
event that marred the harmony in this band of fellow-workers, striving
towards a great ideal. So noble, indeed, was the great central
figure--Charles Darwin--that his senior Lyell and all his juniors were
bound to him by the strongest ties of admiration, respect and affection;
while he, in his graceful modesty, thought more of them than of himself,
of the results of their labours rather than of his own great
achievement.
It is not, as sometimes suggested, the striking out of new ideas which
is of the greatest importance in the history of science, but rather the
accumulation of observations and experiments, the reasonings based upon
these, and the writings in which facts and reasonings are presented to
the world--by which a merely suggestive hypothesis becomes a vivifying
theory--that really count in making history.
Talking with Matthew Arnold in 1871, he laughingly remarked to me 'I
cannot understand why you scientific people make such a fuss about
Darwin. Why it's all in Lucretius!' On my replying, 'Yes! Lucretius
guessed what Darwin proved,' he mischievously rejoined 'Ah! that only
shows how much greater Lucretius really was,--for he divined a truth,
which Darwin spent a life of labour in groping for.'
Mr Alfred Russel Wallace has so well and clearly set forth the essential
difference between the points of view of the cultivators of literature
and science in this matter, that I cannot do better than to quote his
words. They are as follows:--
'I have long since come to see that no one deserves either
praise or blame for the _ideas_ that come to him, but only for
the _actions_ resulting therefrom. Ideas and beliefs are
certainly not voluntary acts. They come to us--we hardly know
_how_ or _whence_, and once they have got possession of us we
cannot reject them or change them at will. It is for the common
good that the promulgation of ideas should be free--uninfluenced
by either praise or blame, reward or punishment.'
'But the _actions_ which result from our ideas may properly be
so treated, because it is only by patient thought and work that
new ideas, if good and true, become adopted and utilized; while,
if untrue or if not adequately presented to the world, they are
rejected or forgotten[1].'[A]
_Ideas_ of Evolution, both in the Organic and the Inorganic world,
existed but remained barren for thousands of years. Yet by the labours
of a band of workers in last century, these ideas, which were but the
dreams of poets and the guesses of philosophers, came to be the accepted
creed of working naturalists, while they have profoundly affected
thought and language in every branch of human enterprise.
[A] For References see the end of the volume.