Page:Carroll Lane Fenton - Darwin and the Theory of Evolution.djvu/30

 Rh could be resumed. Several of the members called for Hooker, the botanist and co-worker of Darwin, and Henslow invited him to give a view of the theory from the side of botany. Hooker complied willingly, showing that, by his own statements the Bishop had not understood even the simpler principles of Darwinism, and at the same time was thoroughly ignorant of the elementary facts of botany. The Bishop made no reply, so the meeting broke up.

Accounts of the meeting reached Darwin promptly, and on Sunday he wrote Hooker congratulating him for his triumph over the Bishop, and recognizing his own inability to take part in public arguments. A little later he expressed himself to Huxley, "From all I hear from several quarters, it seems that Oxford did the subject great good. It is of enormous importance, the showing the world that a few first-rate men are not afraid of expressing their opinion."

Such was the beginning of the scientific-religious war which for more than sixty years has raged with varying degrees of fury over the idea that one species arises from another. It spread throughout the civilized world—indeed, was in full progress in the United States at the time of the Oxford meeting, and the countries of continental Europe were reached a little later, when translations began to appear. For a time the opposition was conducted in part, at least, by scientists, who thought they could see real scientific reasons to advance against those set forth by Darwin. But gradually this party died out—and died off