NATURAL SELECTION 



discovery of the planet Neptune. Mr. Wallace, 

 indeed, thought out independently all the es- 

 sential points of the theory, and stated it in a 

 way which showed that he understood its wide- 

 reaching importance ; but being a much younger 

 man than Mr. Darwin, and having begun the 

 investigation at a much later date, he by no 

 means worked it out so elaborately. Nor is it 

 likely that, with an equal length of time at his 

 command, he could have succeeded in produ- 

 cing a work comparable in scientific calibre to 

 the " Origin of Species." His lately published 

 collection of essays, while showing unusual pow- 

 ers of observation and rare acuteness in the ap- 

 plication of his theory to certain special classes 

 of phenomena, nevertheless furnishes convin- 

 cing proof that in breadth and depth of scientific 

 attainment, as well as in philosophic capacity, 

 he is very far inferior to his great coadjutor. In 

 his preface, indeed, Mr. Wallace hastens to ac- 

 knowledge, with a modest self-appreciation as 

 rare as it is admirable, and especially rare in such 

 cases, that his strength would have been quite 

 unequal to the task which Mr. Darwin has ac- 

 complished. 



As Professor Haeckel somewhere observes, 

 it was quite fortunate for the progress of science 

 that Mr. Darwin received such a stimulus to 

 the publication of his theory ; since otherwise 

 he might perhaps have gone on several years 



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