Essays on Life 



their opinions forward in the way that shall 

 best ensure their acceptance ; both are equally 

 unrivalled in the tact that tells them when 

 silence will be golden, and when on the other 

 hand a whole volume of facts may be advan- 

 tageously brought forward. Less than the 

 foregoing tribute both to Messrs. Darwin and 

 Wallace I will not, and more I cannot pay. 



Let us now turn to the most authoritative 

 exponent of latter-day evolution I mean 

 to Mr. Wallace, whose work, entitled " Dar- 

 winism," though it should have been entitled 

 " Wallaceism," is still so far Darwinistic that 

 it develops the teaching of Mr. Darwin 

 in the direction given to it by Mr. Darwin 

 himself so far, indeed, as this can be ascer- 

 tained at all and not in that of Lamarck. 

 Mr. Wallace tells us, on the first page of his 

 preface, that he has no intention of dealing 

 even in outline with the vast subject of evolu- 

 tion in general, and has only tried to give 

 such an account of the theory of natural 

 selection as may facilitate a clear conception 

 of Darwin's work. How far he has succeeded 



is a point on which opinion will probably be 



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