186 MR. DARWIN'S CRITICS v 



s 



selection. And, finally, if it be recollected that 

 Mr. Darwin's and Mr. Wallace's essays were 

 published simultaneously in the " Journal of the 

 Linnsean Society " for 1858, it follows that the 

 Reviewer, while obliquely depreciating Mr. Dar- 

 win's deserts, has in reality awarded to him a 

 priority which, in legal strictness, does not exist. 

 Mr. Mivart, whose opinions so often concur with 

 those of the Quarterly Reviewer, puts the case in 

 a way, which I much regret to be obliged to say, 

 is, in my judgment, quite as incorrect ; though 

 the injustice may be less glaring. He says that 

 the theory of natural selection is, in general, ex- 

 clusively associated with the name of Mr. Darwin, 

 " on account of the noble self-abnegation of Mr. 

 Wallace." As I have said, no one can honour Mr. 

 Wallace more than I do, both for what he has 

 done and for what he has not done, in his relation 

 to Mr. Darwin. And perhaps nothing is more 

 creditable to him than his frank declaration that 

 he could not have written such a work as the 

 " Origin of Species." But, by this declaration, the 

 person most directly interested in the matter re- 

 pudiates, by anticipation, Mr. Mivart's suggestion 

 that Mr. Darwin's eminence is more or less due to 

 Mr. Wallace's modesty. 



