THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE "VESTIGES OF CREATION."

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 10, 1 July 1884, Page 11

THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE "VESTIGES OF CREATION."

FROM THE 'SCOTSMAN.' Forty years have elapsed since the first appearance of the" Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation." The book at once attracted attention by the brilliancy and vigour of its style, for its lucid presentation of scientific fact and theory, and, above all, for the boldness with which it attacked the accepted theories and conclusions of science and of theology, and advanced hypotheses concerning the origin and development of life on the planet which, if not altogether new, had never before been presented in so popular a form. Immediately the bigots of science and of theology rose up in anger, and, deep answering to deep, pronounced on the book the greater malediction. The controversy that for a time was fought so hotly round the book has almost " fallen dumb ;" the tide-mark of scientfic inquiry and demonstration has risen far beyond the limits contemplated in the " Vestiges," and the orthodox of our day must wonder that a work so reverent in tone should ever have been branded as pestilent atheism. Within the larger controversy over the doctrines and iacts set forth in the " Vestiges " raged another, bearing reference to its authorship. Many wild guesses were hazarded on the subject, but the general drift of opinion gave the credit of the obloquy to the late Dr. Robert Chambers. What doubt may have lingered in the public mind on this subject has at length been finally set at rest. A new edition of the " Vestiges " —the twelfth—is on the point of being issued by Messrs. W. & R. Chambers, and in an introduction Mr. Alexander Ireland, as " the sole surviving depository of the secret," makes a clean breast of the story of the origin and publication of the work. The guess which connected the name of Dr. Robert Chambers with the book was right ;he was, Mr. Ireland tells us, the sole author. It could only, however, have been a guess 'or suspicion, lor, we are informed, the secret of the authorship was entrusted to no more than four persons, all of whom loyally kept it. Three of these—the author's wife, his brother Dr. William Chambers, and Mr. Robert Cox, editor of the ' Phrenological Journal' —are now dead : and Mr. Ireland, being under no express promise to conceal it longer, has hastened to relieve his mind of the secret which he has carried about with him for forty years. He tells us, in the narrative which he has prefixed to the new edition, that up to the close of his life the late Dr. William Chambers was unwilling that his brother's connection with the work should be divulged, and expressed a wish that the matter should be " allowed to lapse into oblivion." Mr. Ireland has taken a different view, and most men will be of opinion that he has judged rightly in deciding to clear away a literary mystery, which perhaps need never have existed, or at least need not have existed so long.