oad in which they now are, I willingly raise my
voice, with the most absolute conviction of being in the right[28].

[28] de blainville, _compte rendu_, 1837.

And, after displaying the proof rendered by Lyell of uniformitarianism
in geology, and cordially subscribing thereto, Whewell adds:--

We are led by our reasonings to this view, that the present order
of things was commenced by an act of creative power entirely
different to any agency which has been exerted since. None of the
influences which have modified the present races of animals and
plants since they were placed in their habitations on the earth's
surface can have had any efficacy in producing them at first. We
are necessarily driven to assume, as the beginning of the present
cycle of organic nature, an event not included in the course of
nature[29].

[29] Whewell, _ibid._, p. 162.

So much, then, for the state of the most enlightened and representative
opinions on the question of evolution before the publication of
Darwin's work; and so much, likewise, for the only reasonable
suggestions as to the causes of evolution which up to that time had been
put forward, even by those few individuals who entertained any belief in
evolution as a fact. It was the theory of natural selection that changed
all this, and created a revolution in the thought of our time, the
magnitude of which in many of its far-reaching consequences we are not
even yet in a position to appreciate; but the action of which has
already wrought a transformation in general philosophy, as well as in
the more special science of biology, that is without a parallel in the
history of mankind.

* * * * *

Although every one is now more or less well acquainted with the theory
of natural selection, it is necessary, for the sake of completeness,
that I should state the theory; and I will do so in full detail.

It is a matter of observable fact that all plants and animals are
perpetually engaged in what Darwin calls a "struggle for existence."
That is to say, in every generation of every species a great many more
individuals are born than can possibly survive; so that there is in
consequence a perpetual battle for life going on among all the
constituent individuals of any given generation. Now, in this struggle
for existence, which individuals will be victorious and live? Assuredly
those which are best fitted