We hear much of the “magnitude of the prejudices” which Darwin had to overcome, and of the mighty battle which Darwin and his lieutenant Huxley had to fight before the theory of the origin of species by natural selection obtained acceptance. We venture to say that statements such as these are misleading. We think we may safely assert that scarcely ever has a theory which fundamentally changed the prevailing scientific beliefs met with less opposition. It would have been a good thing for zoology had Darwin not obtained so easy a victory.
Sir Richard Owen, a distinguished anatomist, certainly attacked the doctrine in no unmeasured terms, but his attack was anonymous and so cannot be considered very formidable. Far more important was the opposition of Dr St George Mivart, whose worth as a biologist has never been properly appreciated. His most important work, entitled the _Genesis of Species_, might be read with profit even now by many of our modern Darwinians.
For some time after the publication of the _Origin of Species_ Mivart appears to be almost the only man of science fully alive to the weak points of the Darwinian theory. The great majority seem to have been dazzled by its brilliancy.
The main attack on Darwinism was conducted by the theologians and their allies, who considered it to be subversive of the Mosaic account of the Creation. Now, when one whose scientific knowledge is, to say the best of it, not extensive, attacks a man who has studied his subject dispassionately for years, and invariably expresses himself with extreme caution, the onslaught can have but one result—the attacker will be repulsed with heavy loss, and the onlookers will have a higher opinion of his valour than of his common sense.
The theologians were in the unfortunate position of warriors who do not know what it is against which they are fighting; they confounded natural selection with evolution, and directed the main force of their attack against the latter, under the impression that they were fighting the Darwinian theory.
It was the misfortune of those theologians that it is possible to prove that evolution, or, at any rate, some evolution has occurred; they thus kicked against the pricks with disastrous results to themselves. When this attack had been repulsed men believed that the theory of natural selection had been demonstrated, that it was as much a law of nature as that of gravitation. What had really happened was that the fact of evolution had been proved, and the theory of natural selection obtained the credit. Men thought that Darwinism was evolution. Had the theologians admitted evolution but denied the ability of natural selection to explain it, the Darwinian theory, in all probability, would not have gained the ascendency which it now enjoys.