394 OUTLINES OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY 



Wallace's views l also differ from those of Darwin in that, at 

 any rate in later years, they have become strongly anthropo- 

 centric, and he now regards the whole of the organic world as 

 having been designed by the Creator for the ultimate reception 

 and benefit of mankind. He does not, it is true, go back to the 

 old idea that species have been separately and specially created 

 as we now find them, but he holds that the entire scheme of 

 evolution was planned out in the mind of the Creator, and even 

 suggests that the working out of this scheme may have been 

 delegated by the Supreme Being to a body of "organizing 

 spirits " : 



" At successive stages of development of the life-world, more 

 and perhaps higher intelligences might be required to direct the 

 main lines of variation in definite directions in accordance with 

 the general design to be worked out, and to guard against a 

 break in the particular line which alone could lead ultimately to 

 the production of the human form." 2 



Such speculations as this would render natural selection and 

 all other natural factors of organic evolution superfluous, but we 

 cannot profitably discuss them in a work like the present. We 

 may point out, however, that they are in essential agreement with 

 the views of the author of the " Vestiges of Creation," to which 

 we have referred in the early part of this chapter, excepting that 

 Robert Chambers did not venture to call in the assistance of 

 subordinate " organizing spirits " to carry out the plans of the 

 Creator. 



increase in size and efficiency ? Lamarck did not suppose that an animal simply 

 willed organs to sprout out of its body ! 



1 For a full exposition of these views the reader should refer to Dr. Wallace's 

 " Darwinism " (London : Macmillan & Co., 1889). 



2 " The World of Life, a Manifestation of Creative Power, Directive Mind and 

 Ultimate Purpose," by Alfred Russel Wallace (London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 

 1910), p. 395. 



