DARWIN 123 



ready in the sense he wished. Chance had to 

 intervene, and bring forward one of the younger 

 men, who almost robbed him of the title of 

 discoverer. Wallace arrived independently at the 

 idea of selection, and he was within a hair's 

 breadth of being the first to publish it. The aged 

 scholar at Down had to come forward. Then the 

 great book was published, and Wallace disappeared 

 in its shadow. 



In Darwin's opinion it was only a preliminary 

 extract, and he added many supplementary 

 volumes as time went on. As a fact it was so 

 severely elaborated that even the thoughtful 

 layman, possibly with a sympathy for the idea, 

 was almost, if not wholly, unable to digest the 

 proofs. It had to be " translated" for the majority 

 of Darwin's educated countrymen. On the other 

 hand, this mass of facts was partly strange and 

 new to the professional biologists. What did so 

 many of the museum-zoologists know, for instance, 

 of the results and problems of the practical breeder ? 

 " That belongs to the province of my colleague 

 who teaches agriculture, not to mine." His 

 proofs were taken indiscriminately from zoology, 

 botany, and geology. But at that time it was woe 

 to the man that mixed up the various branches 

 of research. The professor of zoology could not 

 control the botanical material, and vice versa. 

 There was, in addition, the general dislike of the 

 natural-philosophical nucleus. It was impossible 

 to suppose that this very individual book, trans- 

 gressing every rule, should at once meet with 

 wide encouragement, or even ordinary appreciation. 



