THE METHOD OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.^ 



By Ai>FREi) R. Wallace. 



I. 



The modern (loctriiie of orjjfanic. evolution may be said to date from 

 the great FreucU naturalist BiilTou, who, more than a hundred years 

 before the publication of the Origin of Species, clearly indicated his 

 belief in the mutability of specific and generic forms, although, owing 

 to the power of the church in liis day, he was often obliged to veil his 

 o})iuions under the guise of hypotheses, which, as they were opi)osed to 

 religion, of course could not be true. Yet he occasionally speaks very 

 plainly, as when he says : 



"Nature, I maintain, is in a state of continual tlux and movement;" 



and again — 



"What cannot nature effect with such means at her disposal? She 

 can do all except either create matter or destroy it. These two 

 extremes of power the Deity lias reserved for. Himself <mly; creation 

 and destruction are the attributes of His omnipotence. To alter and 

 uiulo, to develop and renew — these are powers which He has handed 

 over to the charge of nature." 



Dr. Erasnuis Darwin held similar views, which he developed at great 

 length, and in doing so anticipated many of the arguments afterwards 

 elaborated by the celebrated Lamarck, that changes in species were 

 caused both by the direct action of the environment, by the use and 

 exercise by animals of their several organs, and more especially by the 

 effects of eftbrt and desire leading to the development of parts and 

 organs calculated to gratify those desires. The great French natural- 

 ists Geoffrey and Isidore St. Hilaire- adopted these views with certain 

 modifications, as did a limited number of German naturalists: while 

 they were popularly set forth with much knowledge and literary skill 

 by the late Robert Chambers in his Vestiges of Creation. Somewhat 

 later the general theory of evolution was explained and illustrated by 

 Herbert Spencer with so much power and comi)leteness as to compel 

 its acceptance by most thinkers; but neither he, nor any of the great 



'■ From the Fortnightly Review, February and March, 1895, Vol. LVII, new series, 

 Nos. 138, 139; by permisaion of the Leonard Scott Publication Company, New York. 



[-Etieuue Geoffroy-Saiut-Hilaire is the proper name of the author in ques- 

 tion.— Fd.] 



413 



