really was,--for he divined a truth,
which Darwin spent a life of labour in groping for.'

Mr Alfred Russel Wallace has so well and clearly set forth the essential
difference between the points of view of the cultivators of literature
and science in this matter, that I cannot do better than to quote his
words. They are as follows:--

'I have long since come to see that no one deserves either
praise or blame for the _ideas_ that come to him, but only for
the _actions_ resulting therefrom. Ideas and beliefs are
certainly not voluntary acts. They come to us--we hardly know
_how_ or _whence_, and once they have got possession of us we
cannot reject them or change them at will. It is for the common
good that the promulgation of ideas should be free--uninfluenced
by either praise or blame, reward or punishment.'

'But the _actions_ which result from our ideas may properly be
so treated, because it is only by patient thought and work that
new ideas, if good and true, become adopted and utilized; while,
if untrue or if not adequately presented to the world, they are
rejected or forgotten[1].'[A]

_Ideas_ of Evolution, both in the Organic and the Inorganic world,
existed but remained barren for thousands of years. Yet by the labours
of a band of workers in last century, these ideas, which were but the
dreams of poets and the guesses of philosophers, came to be the accepted
creed of working naturalists, while they have profoundly affected
thought and language in every branch of human enterprise.

[A] For References see the end of the volume.

CHAPTER II

ORIGIN OF THE IDEA OF EVOLUTION

In all ages, and in all parts of the world, we find that primitive man
has delighted in speculating on the birth of the world in which he
lives, on the origin of the living things that surround him, and
especially on the beginnings of the race of beings to which he himself
belongs. In a recent very interesting essay[2], the author of _The
Golden Bough_ has collected, from the records of tradition, history and
travel, a valuable mass of evidence concerning the legends which have
grown out of these speculations. Myths of this kind would appear to fall
into two categories, each of which may not improbably be associated with
the different pursuits followed by the uncivilised races of mankind.

Tillers of the soil, impressed as they must have been by the great
annual miracle of the