104 Chauncey Wright. [vi. 



the origin of species by "descent with modifications." 

 His most important literary work was done in eluci- 

 dation and defence of this theory. Of all his writings, 

 by far the clearest and most satisfactory to read is 

 the review of Mr. Mivart's Genesis of Species, which 

 Mr. Darwin thought it worth while to reprint and 

 circulate in England. Its acute and original illustra- 

 tions of the Darwinian theory give it very great 

 value. The essay on phyllotaxy, explaining the 

 origin and uses of the arrangements of leaves in 

 plants, is a contribution of very great importance to 

 the theory of natural selection. So, too, in a different 

 sense, is the paper on the evolution of self-conscious- 

 ness, which is the most elaborate of Mr. Wright's 

 productions, but so full of his worst faults of style 

 that, even after much cross-questioning of the author, 

 I never felt quite sure that I had grasped his central 

 meaning. 



It was in such detached essays or monographs as 

 these that much was to have been expected from Mr. 

 Wright, especially in the application of Darwinian 

 conceptions to the study of psychology. Could he 

 have been induced to undertake an elaborate treatise, 

 we should have seen the philosophy of Mill and 

 Bain carried to its furthest development and illus- 

 trated with Darwinian suggestions by a writer not in 



