the common Christian temper towards every form of critical dissent
from the body of received opinion; and only since the contempt,
doubled with criticism, began to be in a large degree retorted on
the bigots by instructed men has a better spirit prevailed. Such a
reaction was greatly promoted by the establishment of the Darwinian
theory. It was after the above-noted preparation, popular and academic,
and after the theory of transmutation of species had been definitely
pronounced erroneous by the omniscient Whewell, [1915] that Darwin
produced (1859) his irresistible arsenal of arguments and facts, the
Origin of Species, expounding systematically the principle of Natural
Selection, suggested to him by the economic philosophy of Malthus,
and independently and contemporaneously arrived at by Dr. Alfred
Russel Wallace. The outcry was enormous; and the Church, as always,
arrayed itself violently against the new truth. Bishop Wilberforce
pointed out in the Quarterly Review that "the principle of natural
selection is absolutely incompatible with the word of God," [1916]
which was perfectly true; and at a famous meeting of the British
Association in 1860 he so travestied the doctrine as to goad Huxley
into a fierce declaration that he would rather be a descendant of
an ape than of a man who (like the Bishop) plunged into questions
with which he had no real acquaintance, only to obscure them and
distract his hearers by appeals to religious prejudice. [1917]
The mass of the clergy kept up the warfare of ignorance; but the
battle was practically won within twenty years. In France, Germany,
and the United States leading theologians had made the same suicidal
declarations, entitling all men to say that, if evolution proved
to be true, Christianity was false. Professor Luthardt, of Leipzig,
took up the same position as Bishop Wilberforce, declaring that "the
whole superstructure of personal religion is built upon the doctrine
of creation"; [1918] leading American theologians pronounced the new
doctrine atheistic; and everywhere gross vituperation eked out the
theological argument. [1919]