152 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION PART 



Timber and Arboriculture published in 1831, in 

 which he anticipated Darwin and Wallace's theory 

 as follows : 



'The self- regulating adaptive disposition of 

 organised life may, in part, be traced to the extreme 

 fecundity of Nature, who, as before stated, has in all 

 the varieties of her offspring a prolific power much 

 beyond (in many cases a thousandfold) what is 

 necessary to fill up the vacancies caused by senile 

 decay. As the field of existence is limited and pre- 

 occupied, it is only the hardier, more robust, better- 

 suited -to -circumstance individuals, who are able to 

 struggle forward to maturity, these inhabiting only 

 the situations to which they have superior adaptation 

 and greater power of occupancy than any other 

 kind ; the weaker and less circumstance - suited 

 being prematurely destroyed. This principle is in 

 constant action ; it regulates the colour, the figure, 

 the capacities, and instincts ; those individuals in 

 each species whose colour and covering are best 

 suited to concealment or protection from enemies, 

 or defence from inclemencies or vicissitudes of 

 climate, whose figure is best accommodated to health, 

 strength, defence, and support ; whose capacities and 

 instincts can best regulate the physical energies to 

 self-advantage according to circumstances in such 

 immense waste of primary and youthful life those 

 only come to maturity from the strict ordeal by 

 which Nature tests their adaptation to her standard 

 of perfection and fitness to continue their kind by 

 reproduction' (pp. 384, 385). 



While speaking of difficulty in understanding some 

 passages in Mr. Matthew's appendix, Darwin says 



