iv : PREFACE, 
by me before I had the least notion of the scope and 
nature of Mr. Darwin’s labours. They were published 
in a way not’likely to attract the attention of any but 
working naturalists, and I feel sure that many who 
have heard of them, have never had the opportunity 
of ascertaining how much or how little they really con- 
tain. It therefore happens, that, while some writers 
give me more credit than I deserve, others may very 
naturally class me with Dr. Wells and Mr. Patrick 
Matthew, who, as Mr. Darwin has shown in the his- | 
torical sketch given in the 4th and 5th Editions of. 
the ‘Origin of Species,” certainly propounded the 
fundamental principle of “ natural selection” before 
himself, but who made no further use of that principle, 
and failed to see its wide and immensely important 
applications. 
The present work will, I venture to think, prove, 
that I both saw at the time the value and scope ot 
the law which I had discovered, and have since been 
able to apply it to some purpose in a few original 
lines of investigation. But here my claims cease. 
I have felt all my life, and I still feel, the most: 
‘sincere satisfaction that Mr. Darwin had been at 
work long before me, and that it was not left for me 
to attempt to write “‘The Origin of Species.” I have 
long since measured my own strength, and know well 
that it would be quite unequal to that task. Far 
abler men than myself may confess, that they have 
not that untiring patience in accumulating, and that 
wonderful skill in using, large masses of facts of the 
