DARWIN'S CLAIM TO DESCENT. 195 



and Mr. Wallace had jointly hit upon, and which Mr. 

 Darwin was so anxious to show that he had not been 

 hasty in adopting ? When Mr. Darwin went on to say 

 that his abstract would be very imperfect, and that 

 he could not give references and authorities for his 

 several statements, we did not suppose that such an 

 apology could be meant to cover silence concerning 

 writers who during their whole lives, or nearly so, 

 had borne the burden and heat of the day in respect 

 of descent with modification in its most extended 

 application. " I much regret," says Mr. Darwin, " that 

 want of space prevents my having the satisfaction of 

 acknowledging the generous assistance I have received 

 from very many naturalists, some of them personally 

 unknown to me." This is like what the Royal Acade- 

 micians say when they do not intend to hang our 

 pictures ; they can, however, generally find space for 

 a picture if they want to hang it, and we assume with 

 safety that there are no master-works by painters of 

 the very highest rank for which no space has been 

 available. Want of space will, indeed, prevent my 

 quoting from more than one other paragraph of 

 Mr. Darwin's introduction; this paragraph, however, 

 should alone suffice to show how inaccurate Mr. Allen 

 is in saying that Mr. Darwin " laid no sort of claim to 

 originality or proprietorship " in the theory of descent 

 with modification, and this is the point with which we 

 are immediately concerned. Mr. Darwin says : — 



" In considering the origin of species, it is quite 

 conceivable that a naturalist, reflecting on the mutual 

 affinities of organic beings, on their embryological 



