v MR. DARWIN S CRITICS 185 



Reviewer cannot even state the history of the 

 doctrine of natural selection without an oblique 

 and entirely unjustifiable attempt to depreciate 

 Mr. Darwin. &quot; To Mr. Darwin,&quot; says he, &quot; and 

 (through Mr. Wallace s reticence) to Mr. Darwin 

 alone, is due the credit of having first brought it 

 prominently forward and demonstrated its truth.&quot; 

 No one can less desire than I do, to throw a doubt 

 upon Mr. Wallace s originality, or to question his 

 claim to the honour of being one of the originators 

 of the doctrine of natural selection ; but the state 

 ment that Mr. Darwin has the sole credit of 

 originating the doctrine because of Mr. Wallace s 

 reticence is simply ridiculous. The proof of this 

 is, in the first place, afforded by Mr. Wallace him 

 self, whose noble freedom from petty jealousy in 

 this matter smaller folk would do well to imitate, 

 and who writes thus : &quot; I have felt all my life, 

 and I still feel, the most sincere satisfaction 

 that Mr. Darwin had been at work long before 

 me and that it was not left for me to attempt to 

 write the Origin of Species. I have long since 

 measured my own strength, and know well that it 

 would be quite unequal to that task.&quot; So that if 

 there was any reticence at all in the matter, it was 

 Mr. Darwin s reticence during the long twenty 

 years of study which intervened between the con 

 ception and the publication of his theory, which 

 gave Mr. Wallace the chance of being an indepen 

 dent discoverer of the importance of natural 



