I.] IXTRODUCTORY. 11 



ascertained, it seems also able to co-ordinate.-^ ^ay, 

 " Natural Selection " seems capable of application not 

 only to the building up of the smallest and most insig- 

 nificant organisms, but even of extension beyond the 

 biological domain altogether, so as possibly to have rela- 

 tion to the stable equilibrium of the solar system itself, 

 and even of the whole sidereal universe. Thus, whether 

 this theory be true or false^ all lovers of natural science 

 should acknowledge a deep debt of gratitude to Messrs. 

 Darwin and Wallace, on account of its practical utility. 

 But the utility of a theory by no means implies its truth. 

 AMiat do we not owe, for example, to the labours of the 

 Alchemists ? The emission theory of light, again, has been 

 pregnant with valuable results, as still is the Atomic theory, 

 and others which will readily suggest themselves. 



With regard to Mr. Darwin (with whose name, on account 

 of the noble self-abnegation of ]\lr. Wallace, the theory is 

 in general exclusively associated), his friends may heartily 

 congratulate him on the fact that he is one of the few 

 exceptions to the rule respecting the non- appreciation of a 

 prophet in his own country. It would be difficult to name 

 another living labourer in the field of physical science who 

 has excited an interest so wide-spread, and given rise to so 

 much praise, gathering round him, as he has done, a chorus 

 of more or less completely acquiescing disciples, themselves 

 masters in science and each the representative of a crowd 

 of enthusiastic followers. 



^ See Miiller's work, " Fiir Darwin," lately translated into English by- 

 Mr. Dallas. ;Mr. Wallace also predicts the discovery, in ^ladagascar, of 

 a hawk-moth with an enormously long proboscis, and he does this on 

 account of the discovery there of an orchid with a nectary from ten to 

 fourteen inches in length. See Quarterhj Journal of /Science, October 1867, 

 and " Natural Selection," p. 275. 



