DARWINISM. 31 



as if he were Darwin's disciple, than as, what he 

 really is, the independent discoverer of the theory. 

 " I claim for my book," he says, " the position of 

 being the advocate of pure Darwinism." And by 

 <( pure Darwinism " we are to understand the pre- 

 eminently Darwinian doctrine, that natural selec- 

 tion is the predominant though not the only factor 

 in the variation of species. 



Mr. Wallace, thus, at once puts himself on the 

 side of Darwin and Weismann, as against Lamarck 

 and Herbert Spencer, though this does not imply 

 either the unqualified acceptance of Weismann's 

 theory, or the abandonment of the old opposition 

 to Darwin on the subject of man. The greater 

 part of the book is devoted to the verification and 

 defence of Darwin's main position, not merely that 

 descent with modification is the order of nature 

 throughout the organic world for this is universally 

 admitted but that, among the factors in evolution, 

 natural selection is overwhelmingly important. 



Those who wish for a clear statement of the 

 evidence for natural selection, and the way in which 

 it acts, as well as of the fundamental fact on which 

 natural selection depends, the struggle for existence, 

 will find what they want in Mr. Wallace's book, 

 together with a statement in Chaps. VIII. XL of 

 some of the most recent results of the investigation 

 in the colouration of plants and animals, and the 

 various forms of protective or predatory mimicry. 



