[53] Sir William Thomson implies (loc. cit. p. 16), that the precise time is of no consequence: "the principle is the same;" but, as the principle is admitted, the whole discussion turns on its practical results. [54] "Untersuchung der Frage ob die Erde in ihrer Umdrehung um die Achse, wodurch sie die Abwechselung des Tages und der Nacht hervorbringt, einige Veraenderung seit den ersten Zeiten ihres Ursprunges erlitten habe, &c."--KANT'S _Saemmtliche Werke_, Bd. i. p. 178. [55] Sir W. Thomson, loc. cit., p. 14. [56] Loc. cit., p. 27 [57] Ibid. [58] It will be understood that I do not wish to deny that the earth's rotation _may be_ undergoing retardation. [59] Loc. cit., p. 20. [60] Loc. cit., p. 24. XII. THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. Mr. Darwin's long-standing and well-earned scientific eminence probably renders him indifferent to that social notoriety which passes by the name of success; but if the calm spirit of the philosopher have not yet wholly superseded the ambition and the vanity of the carnal man within him, he must be well satisfied with the results of his venture in publishing the "Origin of Species." Overflowing the narrow bounds of purely scientific circles, the "species question" divides with Italy and the Volunteers the attention of general society. Everybody has read Mr. Darwin's book, or, at least, has given an opinion upon its merits or demerits; pietists, whether lay or ecclesiastic, decry it with the mild railing which sounds so charitable; bigots denounce it with ignorant invective; old ladies, of both sexes, consider it a decidedly dangerous book, and even savans, who have no better mud to throw, quote antiquated writers to show that its author is no better than an ape himself; while every philosophical thinker hails it as a veritable Whitworth gun in the armory of liberalism; and all competent naturalists and physiologists, whatever their opinions as to the ultimate fate of the doctrines put forth, acknowledge that the work in which they are embodied is a solid contribution to knowledge and inaugurates a new epoch in natural history.