Works on Biology, etc. 



and (7) a new argument as to the nature and origin of the 

 moral and intellectual faculties of man (Chap. XV.). 



'* Although I maintain, and even enforce," wrote Wal- 

 lace, '' my differences from some of Darwin's views, mj 

 whole work tends forcibly to illustrate the overwhelming 

 importance of Natural Selection over all other agencies in 

 the production of new species. I thus take up Darwin's 

 earlier position, from which he somewhat receded in the 

 later editions of his works, on account of criticisms and 

 objections which I have endeavoured to show are unsound. 

 EK'en in rejecting that phase of sexual selection depending 

 on female choice, I insLst on the greater efficacy of Natural 

 Selection. This is pre-eminently the Darwinian doctrine, 

 and I therefore claim for my book the position of being the 

 advocate of pure Darwinism." 



In concluding this section which, like a previous one, 

 touches upon the intimate relations between Darwin and 

 Wallace, and the points on which they agreed or differed, 

 it is well, as the differences have been exa^erated and mis- 

 understood, to bear in mind his own declaration : " None 

 of my differences from Darwin imply any real divergence 

 as to the overwhelming importance of the great principle 

 of natural selection, while in severs^ directions I believe 

 that I have extended and strengthened it."' 



With these explanatory notes the reader will now be 

 able to follow the two grouf^ of letters on Natural Selec- 

 tion, Geographical Distribution, and the Origin of Life 

 and Consciousness which foUow. 



» -My Life," iL 22. 



17 



