The Discovery of Natural Selection 



problem itself, which were both needed in order to per- 

 ceive the application of the principle to the mode of 

 development of the varied forms of life. 



And now, to recur to mj own position, I may be allowed 

 to make a final remark. I have long since come to see that 

 no one deserves either praise or blame for the ideas that come 

 to him, but only for the actions resulting therefrom. Ideas 

 and beliefs are certainly not voluntary acts. They come to 

 us — we hardly know how or whence^ and once they have got 

 possession of us we cannot reject or change them at will. It 

 is for the common good that the promulgation of ideas should 

 be free — uninfluenced either by praise or blame, reward or 

 punishment. 



But the actions which result from our ideas may properly 

 be so treated, because it is only by patient thought and 

 work that new ideas, if good and true, become adapted and 

 utilised; while if untrue, or if not adequately presented to 

 the world, they are rejected or forgotten. 



I therefore accept the crowning honour you have con- 

 ferred on me to-day, not for the happy chance through 

 which I became an independent originator of the doctrine 

 of ^' survival of the fittest," but as a too liberal recog- 

 nition by you of the moderate amount of time and work I 

 have given to explain and elucidate the theory, to point 

 out some novel applications of it, and (I hope I may add) 

 for my attempts to extend those applications, even in direc- 

 tions which somewhat diverged from those accepted by my 

 honoured friend and teacher Charles Darwin. 



Sir Joseph Hooker was now called upon by the Presi- 

 dent to receive the Darwin- Wallace Medal. In acknowledg- 

 ing the honour that had been paid him, he said : 



No thesis or subject was vouchsafed to me by the 

 Council, but, having gratefully accepted the honour, I 

 was bound to find one for myself. It soon dawned upon 

 me that the object sought by my selection might have 

 been that, considering the intimate terms upon which 

 Mr. Darwin extended to me his friendship, I could from 

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