Art and Science 



not warrant Mr. Darwin in claiming, as he 

 most fatuously did, the theory of evolution. 

 That he is still generally believed to have 

 been the originator of this theory is due to 

 the fact that he claimed it, and that a power- 

 ful literary backing at once came forward to 

 support him. It seems at first sight improb- 

 able that those who too zealously urged his 

 claims were unaware that so much had been 

 written on the subject, but when we find even 

 Mr. Wallace himself as profoundly ignorant 

 on this subject as he still either is, or affects 

 to be, there is no limit assignable to the 

 ignorance or affected ignorance of the kind 

 of biologists who would write reviews in lead- 

 ing journals thirty years ago. Mr. Wallace 

 writes : 



"A few great naturalists, struck by the 

 very slight difference between many of these 

 species, and the numerous links that exist 

 between the most different forms of animals 

 and plants, and also observing that a great 

 many species do vary considerably in their 

 forms, colours and habits, conceived the idea 



that they might be all produced one from the 



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