18 EVOLUTION AND MAN S PLACE IN NATURE 



found, he manifested a noble determination in tracing 

 the pattern worked out on the web of life. The first 

 faint vision of it had an attractiveness known only to 

 the discoverer. After long gazing upon it, he announced 

 his conclusion, Origin of Species by means of Natural 

 Selection, origin from allied species not far removed, 

 involving preservation of favoured races in the 

 struggle for life. Mr. Wallace, joint-discoverer, has 

 done a generous and able piece of work in expounding 

 the theory, and sustaining it by extended illustration 

 of variations in organisms in a state of nature. l 

 The interdependence of vegetable and animal life, 

 long familiar, began to appear in new lights. Form 

 and colour in leaves and flowers, found new signifi 

 cance, it being proved that these have attractions for 

 other eyes besides those of men, and that they guide 

 the actions of lower orders of life in ways before 

 quite unsuspected. Miillcr, Horner, Huber, Lubbock, 

 M Cook, and many more have enriched our literature 

 with tributary evidence. 



The interdependence of distinct families of animals 

 was slowly demonstrated by an exceedingly varied 

 series of observations. The dependence of life on 

 environment has proved a subject of study fruitful in 

 suggestion. In this relation, the struggle for exist 

 ence has come out conspicuously, after having, for 

 a time, given serious perplexity. The tendency now 

 is to assign to it even more than the records of 

 natural history warrant. Observation, when concen 

 trated on this struggle, is predisposed to overlook 

 superabundance of supply, where it exists. On the 

 other hand, Avhen pondering how life feeds on life, we 



1 Wallace s Darwinism, see p. 128. 



