CHAPTER VI
Ferment (1863-1870)
FOR more than a generation England had been swimming easily along through a sea of spiritual compromise, ruffled only by the solitary cries of Carlyle and the lesser Carlylites. The rising groundswell of reform had now and again caused fears of upheaval, but these had been astutely laid to rest by the Queen's sober statesmen. The church had been riding high and free on the Oxford Movement. Applied science was progressing along lines that might have been called satisfactory. Railways were tapping the country, newspapers were spreading information—of a kind.
It was pure science that finally shook this seemingly secure world to its foundations. The elements of revolt had all been there but had been awaiting only the snap of a mental firing-pin.
The explosion occurred in 1859, with the publication of The Origin of Species. Instantly the peaceful scene of mid-Victorian Britain became the setting for riotous turmoil. At Oxford, Bishop Wilberforce and Thomas Henry Huxley damned each other roundly, while women fainted under the tension. At London, an intellectual triangle spread confusion: the High Church corner was held by Liddon at St. Paul's; Stanley at Westminster Abbey thundered liberalism; at the Royal Institute, Huxley con-
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