After we have Darwin shorn of his selection theories, what has he
left? His significance is not lessened. He is still the most
impressive figure in modern biological science. His attitude of mind,
the problems he tackled, his methods of work, the nature and scope of
his inquiries, together with his candor, and his simplicity and
devotion to truth, are a precious heritage to all mankind.
Darwin's work is monumental because he belongs to the class of
monumental men. The doctrine of evolution as applied to animate
nature reached its complete evolution in his mind. He stated the
theory in broader and fuller terms than had any man before him; he
made it cover the whole stupendous course of evolution. He showed man
once for all an integral part of the zoölogic system. He elevated
natural history, or biology, to the ranks of the great sciences, a
worthy member of the triumvirate--astronomy, geology, biology. He
taught us how to cross-question the very gods of life in their council
chambers; he showed us what significance attaches to the simplest
facts of natural history.
Darwin impresses by his personality not less than by his logic and his
vast storehouse of observations. He was a great man before he was a
great natural-history philosopher. His patient and painstaking
observation is a lesson to all nature students. The minutest facts
engaged him. He studies the difference between the stamens of the same
plant. He counted nine thousand seeds, one by one, from artificially
fertilized pods. Plants from two pollens, he says, grow at different
rates. Any difference in the position of the pistil, or in the size
and color of the stamens, in individuals of the same species grown
together, was of keen interest to him.
The best thing about Darwinism is Darwin--his candor, his patience,
his simplicity, his devotion to truth, and his power of observation.
This is about what Professor T. H. Morgan meant when he said: "It is
the spirit of Darwinism, not its formulæ, that we proclaim as our best
heritage." He gave us a new point of view of the drama of creation; he
gave us ideas that are applicable to the whole domain of human
activities. It is true, he was not a pioneer in this field: he did not
blaze the first trail through this wilderness of biological facts and
records; rather was he like a master-engineer who surveys and
establishes the great highway. All the world now travels along the
course he established and perfected. He made the long road of
evolution easy, and he placed upon permanent foundations the doctrine
of the animal origin of man. He taught the world to think in terms of
evolution, and he pointed the way to a rational explanation of the
diversity of living forms.
V