334 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



34. 

 OuMoor 



shidies. 



people the whole habitable portion of the globe, is a 

 fact which has only been realised since Malthus, and, 

 on a much larger and more general scale, Darwin and 

 Wallace have drawn attention to it/ This being 

 generally admitted, the questions arise : What are these 

 automatic checks, and what results do they produce ? 

 It is evidently quite a new line of reasoning, unknown 

 to former naturalists, or only sporadically and fragment- 

 arily pursued by them ; but it introduces us at once 

 into nature itself, away from the class-room and the 

 museum, where we hear of the forces and laws of nature 

 in their abstract mathematical development, or where we 

 behold specimens arranged peacefully and lifelessly side by 

 side. We are face to face with the fierce and continuous 

 conflict which is unceasingly going on around us, and 

 realise the endless changes which it must be producing. 



Among the many influences which the Darwinian 

 view has had in opposite directions on the thought of 

 our age, none is greater or more fundamental than 

 this, that whereas before Darwin naturalists stepped 



^ On the publication of the 

 ' Origin of Species,' Darwin re- 

 ceived many letters pointing out 

 earlier anticipations of his views. 

 The more important of these — bear- 

 ing upon descent and change — have 

 been referred to in tlie present 

 chapter. The special principle of 

 natural selection seems to have 

 been already foreseen by Dr Wells 

 in 1813, and published in his 

 famous ' Two Essaj's upon Dew and 

 Single Vision' in 1818. "In this 

 paper he distinctly recognises the 

 principle of natural selection, and 

 this is the first recognition which 

 has been indicated" ('Origin of 



Species,' historical sketch to later 

 editions). Another anticipation was 

 that of Patrick Matthew in 1831, in 

 his work on ' Naval Timber and 

 Arboriculture.' " Unfortunately 

 the view was given very briefly iu 

 scattered passages in an appendix 

 to a work on a different subject, so 

 that it remained unnoticed until 

 Mr Matthew himself drew atten- 

 tion to it in the ' Gardeners' 

 Chronicle' on April 7, 1860. , . . 

 He clearly saw the full force of the 

 principle of natural selection " 

 {loc. cit., p. xvi). Neither of 

 these writings was known to 

 Darwin in 1859. 



