Yet, after fifty years of discussion and argument, Darwin’s main positions hold their own with extraordinary tenacity. In the very latest word on the subject Professor Parker says: ‘It is to the credit of Charles Darwin and his body of able supporters that the scientific world was finally brought to accept the principle of descent with modification and natural selection as the means whereby it was accomplished.’[386] Professor Conklin affirms that: ‘The only scientific explanation of such adjustment or fitness is Darwin’s principle of natural selection of the fit and elimination of the unfit, and it is eloquent testimony to the greatness of Darwin that more and more this great principle is being recognized as the only mechanistic explanation of adaptation.’[387] And Professor Osborn is equally emphatic: ‘In my opinion natural selection is the only cause of evolution which has thus far been discovered and demonstrated.’[388] While from a more abstractly philosophical point of view the emphatic recently written words of Professor Ralph Barton Perry, give ample support to the general Darwinian position: ‘In truth there is no gulf between man and the animal. We cannot deny to the latter sensibility, memory, and intelligence. The facts which prove it would fill volumes.... The animal has feelings of mother love, attachment, and devotion. It differs from us in degree only; its “soul” is to ours what the bud is to the flower and fruit.’[234] But, independent of all agreement or disagreement with Darwin’s theories, the striking thing is the consensus of scientists in praise of the man, and the recognition of his effort and method and life as a model for all scientific workers. It is rare that praise is so unalloyed, so persistent, and so complete. In this connection it is interesting to compare the nature of the glory of the poet, Shakespeare, for example, with that of the scientific writer. Shakespeare is not only remembered, he is read. Every successive generation takes up his plays for themselves, reads into them its own passions and experiences, and thus makes them a perennial possession of humanity, quite independent of their author. The works of Darwin, or of any other scientist, have no such enduring value for actual perusal. The curious study them for historical record. But for the mass of mankind and even of scientists, a large part of them has entered into universal knowledge and may be read in any textbook, and the remainder has become obsolete and of no value except for what it meant in an earlier day. The scientist’s name becomes detached from the work, even though he remains great because he did it. Yet the name, in spite of being thus detached, perhaps all the more because it is detached, shines like a star through century after century. CHAPTER IV DARWIN: THE LOSER I