Art and Science 



were produced from one another, more especi- 

 ally as I have already dealt at some length 

 with the early evolutionists in my work, 

 "Evolution, Old and New," first published 

 ten years ago, and not, so far as I am aware, 

 detected in serious error or omission. If, how- 

 ever, Mr. Wallace still thinks it safe to pre- 

 sume so far on the ignorance of his readers as 

 to say that the only two important works on 

 evolution before Mr. Darwin's were Lamarck's 

 Philosophic Zoologique and the "Vestiges of 

 Creation," how fathomable is the ignorance of 

 the average reviewer likely to have been thirty 

 years ago, when the " Origin of Species " was 

 first published ? Mr. Darwin claimed evolu- 

 tion as his own theory. Of course, he would 

 not claim it if he had no right to it. Then by 

 all means give him the credit of it. This was 

 the most natural view to take, and it was 

 generally taken. It was not, moreover, sur- 

 prising that people failed to appreciate all the 

 niceties of Mr. Darwin's " distinctive feature " 

 which, whether distinctive or no, was assuredly 

 not distinct, and was never frankly contrasted 

 with the older view, as it would have been by 



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