DARWIN AND NATURAL SELECTION 39 



pristine glory. Amongst these may first be cited 

 the distinguished co-emitter of the theory, A. 

 R. Wallace. " Whatever other causes have been 

 at work, Natural Selection is supreme, to an 

 extent which even Darwin himself hesitated to 

 claim forjt."* 



Then there is Lankester, who, in his Presiden- 

 tial Address to the British Association in 1906, 

 committed himself to the statement that " in 

 looking back over twenty-five years, it seems to 

 me that we must say that the conclusions of 

 Darwin as to the origin of species by the survival 

 of selected races in the struggle for existence are 

 more firmly established than ever." 



Then, in the same group, we find, of course, 

 the name of Weismann, and to his statements 

 some small amount of space must be devoted. 

 His latest pronouncements have been made in an 

 article in the volume published by the University 

 of Cambridge at the Darwin Centenary, f When 

 he says " that selection is a factor, and a very 

 powerful factor, in the evolution of organisms can 

 no longer be doubted " (p. 6 1), he is going further 

 than all scientific men would go, as will be seen 

 by later quotations, but unquestionably he would 

 find many, even of moderate views, very nearly, 

 if not quite, in agreement with him. But when 

 he proceeds to state that " the principle of selec- 

 tion solved the riddle as to how what was pur- 

 posive could conceivably be brought about 



* Darwinism (1889), p. 444. See also his latest work, The World 

 of Life (1911), pp. 124 et seq., and especially the instructive 

 instance on pp. 127-8. 



t Darwin and Modern Science* 



