The Essence of Darwinism and the Basis of Modern Orthodoxy 169
his central propositions, but by engaging these focal precepts as living presences,
ripe for reformulation, almost 150 years after their initial presentation. In Darwin's
own world of continuous flux, anything that lasts so long becomes a many-
splendored thing. In a revised world of structuralism, we might say that Darwin
first located and embellished one of the few brilliant and coherent positions in an
intellectual universe with few nucleating places. Either formulation engenders the
same result of abiding respect for Darwin's view of life—leading to proper thanks
owed by all of us for the good fortune of such an interesting founder. What greater
pleasure can we know than to engage Darwin in dialogue—as we can and must do,
because his theory rests upon a powerful and defining essence. Darwin, in short, is
the extraordinary man who, all by himself, embodied the only three beings
proclaimed worthy of respect by Baudelaire—for he pulled down an old order, and
came to know a large part of the new world that he created. Il n'existe que trois
etres respectables: le pretre, le guerrier, le poete. Savoir, tuer, et creer. There exist
only three beings worthy of our respect: the priest, the warrior, and the poet.
Know, kill, and create.