6 COSMIC FEILOSOrHY. [i-t. ii. 



than Mr. Darwin, and having begun the investigation at a 

 much later date, he by no means worked it out so elabo- 

 rately. Nor is it likely that, with an equal length of time 

 at his command, he could have succeeded in producing a 

 work comparable in scientific calibre to the " Origin of 

 Species." His lately published collection of essays, whilo 

 showing unusual powers of observation and rare acuteness in 

 the application of his theory to certain special classes of 

 phenomena, nevertheless furnishes convincing proof that in 

 breadth and depth of scientific attainment, as well as in 

 philosophic capacity, he is very far inferior to his great 

 coadjutor. In his preface, indeed, Mr. Wallace hastens to 

 acknowledge, with a modest self-appreciation as rare as it is 

 admirable, and especially rare in such cases, that his strength 

 would have been quite unequal to the task which Mr. Darwin 

 has accomplished. 



As Prof. Haeckel somewhere observes, it was quite fortunate 

 for the progress of science that Mr. Darwin received such a 

 stimulus to the publication of his theory ; since otherwise 

 he might perhaps have gone on several years longer, 

 observing and experimenting in seclusion. The almost im- 

 mediate acquiescence of the majority of naturalists in Mr. 

 Darwin's views, shows that in 1859 the scientific world 

 was fully prepared for them. The flimsiness of the special- 

 creation hypothesis was more or less clearly perceived by 

 a large number of biologists, who were only withheld from 

 committing themselves to the derivation theory by the cir- 

 cumstance that no satisfactory explanation of the process of 

 development had been propounded. No one had assigned 

 an adequate cause for such a phenomenon as the gradual 

 evolution of a new species ; and sundry attempts which had 

 been made in this direction were so obviously futile as to 

 fcxcite both distrust and ridicule. Lamarck, for example, 

 placing an exaggerated stress upon an established law of 

 biology, contended that "desires, by leading to increased 



