42 MODERN IDEAS OF EVOLUTION 



in any of its parts, when artificially or accidentally 

 introduced, soon proves fatal to its existence as a 

 species ; so that, unless nature is a vastly more skilful 

 breeder and fancier than man, the production of new 

 species by natural selection is an impossibility^] 



Two remarkable books by two of the ablest ex 

 ponents of the Darwinian theory of evolution have 

 recently appeared, which may be taken as specimens of 

 the evolutionary method, and may be commended to 

 those who desire to know this theory as defended and 

 extended by its friends. 1 One of these works is by 

 Alfred Wallace, who may be truly said to have anti 

 cipated Darwin in the theory of natural selection 

 the other by Dr. Romanes, Darwin s successor. Both 

 claim to be orthodox Darwinians, though each accuses 

 the other of some heresy. Wallace s book may, how 

 ever, be accepted as the best English exposition of 

 Darwinism in general, that of Romanes as the ablest 

 attempt to explain on this theory the evolution of the 

 higher faculties of man. Neither professes to explain 

 the origin of life, but both profess, life and species of 

 animals being given, to explain their development 

 as high as man himself, though they differ materially 

 as to this highest stage of evolution, and also as to 

 the omnipotence of natural selection. The judicious 

 reader will, however, observe that both take for granted 

 what should be proved ; in other words, reason con- 



1 Darwinism ^ by Wallace ; Mental Evolution in Man, by 

 Romanes. 



