On  the  contrary,  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States
enjoyed  no  such  period  of  formative  transition.  For,
all  things  considered,  the  movement  burst  upon
them  in  full  panoply  of  power  during  the  decade
1865-1875.  Further,  as  if  to  accentuate  the  stress,
it  synchronized  with  the  home-thrusting  dispute
over  the  Darwinian  theory,  and  this  at  a  moment
when  the  essential  identity  of  the  two  schemes,  in
ultimate  attitude  towards  the  universe,  was  not
apparent.  As  always,  controversy  clouded  the  main
issues  at  the  outset.     On  the  other  hand,  since  about


SHEAVES    ON   THE    THRESHING-FLOOR  7

1890  shouts  of  battle  have  diminished,  party  cries
and  nicknames  have  found  their  due  level,  a  process
of  assimilation  has  wrought  results  in  some  measure.
We  shall  realize  this  more  in  detail  later.  Mean-
while, suffice  it  to  say  that  we  can  now  recognize  the
reason  why  our  intellectual  atmosphere  has  not  been
interpenetrated  by  these  constructive  ideas  even  yet.
Astonishing  darkness  prevails  in  certain  quarters,
where  illumination  might  be  expected,  while  miscon-
ceptions so  strange  that  one  is  forced  to  conclude
them  undesigned  to  mislead,  still  provide  pitiful
commentary.  Nevertheless,  we  are  bound  to  re-
member, in  all  charity,  that  when  the  waters  of
evolution  rose  and  the  floods  of  criticism  descended
at  one  fell  swoop,  dire  shipwreck  of  their  most  holy
things  seemed  imminent  to  many.  But,  in  any  case,
perspective  has  altered.  For  example,  it  were  im-
possible to-day  that  the  hue  and  cry  after  the  "Ves-
tiges of  the  Natural  History  of  Creation"  (1844)
should  recur  over  a  similar  book.  As  Lamarck
said,  browbeaten  by  his  generation,  "It  is  better
that  a  truth  once  perceived  should  struggle  a  long
time  to  obtain  attention  than  that  everything  the
ardent  imagination  of  man  produces  should  be  easily
accepted."  ^

^Philosophic  Zoologiqtie,  p.  15.
