Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 76.djvu/37

Rh whole. Viewed from the eminence of his own example, we shall see where he fell short and was led into error with as even an eye as we shall see what he did that must endure as long as science itself shall endure.

Directing our question to the works themselves, this is the answer that comes prompt and clear: Darwin convinced everybody competent to judge the case on its merits that new kinds of plants and animals originate naturally, not miraculously. He not only convinced experts of this truth, but he gained for it a secure place in the great, irresistible tide of common thought and life. Such was his supreme achievement. Many of his ardent disciples have not been content to accept this, for them, too modest appraisement of his work. They have said his true greatness lies not in his having established the "mere fact of evolution," but that he explained that fact—that he discovered the how and why of evolution.

The verdict of inexorable time will refuse to Darwin the glory of having really explained the origin of new species of organisms. It will allow that he did much in this direction, but not greatly more than others past and future have done and will do. Fame's recompense so far as this is concerned, Darwin will have to take share and share alike with many a fellow workman.

The question we have to consider is: Was establishing the truth of evolution an achievement of such magnitude as to enroll its accomplisher among those who belong beyond peradventure to all the ages? My answer is, yes. The reason for the answer, reduced to smallest compass, is that in doing this Darwin brought into the fold of observation and rational thought the latest and greatest ingredient of reliance on the order of nature, of belief in the infinite whole of things, of faith in the dignity and destiny of man. We here approach one of those vast realms of truth and human concern, the earliest visions of which are always gained by those geniuses known to us as prophets and poets. "Faith is the substance of things not seen," said in essence the philosopher disciple.

 Faith, that meets ten thousand cheats Yet drops no jot of Faith! Devil and brute Thou dost transmute To higher, lordlier show, Who art in sooth that lovely Truth The careless angels know!

So speaks England's foremost living poet.

Darwin, more perhaps than any other single man of science, contributed to the incarnation of the truth presented here as vision; and only in so far as it is incarnated does it become daily bread for common men. Through such incarnations alone are men convinced that no lawlessness exists or ever has existed anywhere in nature, that nothing