FIFTY YEARS OF DARWINISM 19 



to the evening of July 1, when he met Sir Charles 

 Lyell at the Society, all the intercourse with 

 DarAvin and with each other was conducted by 

 letter, and that no fourth person was admitted 

 into their confidence. The joint essay was read 

 by the secretary of the Society. Darwin was 

 not present, but both Lyell and Hooker " said 

 a few words to emphasize the importance of the 

 subject." Among those who were present were 

 Oliver, Fitton, Carpenter, Henfrey, Burchell, 

 and Bentham, who was elected on the Council 

 and nominated as Vice-President in place of 

 Robert Brown. I cannot resist the temptation 

 to reprint from the memorial volume issued by 

 the Linnean Society of London some passages 

 in the address which A. R. Wallace felt con- 

 strained to deliver on July 1, 1908, protesting 

 against the too great credit which he believed had 

 been assigned to himself. After describing Dar- 

 win's discovery of Natural Selection and the 

 twenty years devoted to confirmation and patient 

 research, Wallace continued: — 



" How different from this long study and preparation 

 — this philosophic caution — ^this determination not to 

 make known his fruitful conception till he could back it 

 up by overwhelming proofs — ^was my own conduct. The 

 idea came to me, as it had come to Darwin, in a sudden 

 flash of insight: it was thought out in a few hours — 

 was written down with such a sketch of its various appli- 

 cations and developments as occurred to me at the 

 moment, — ^then copied on thin letter-paper and sent off 

 to Darwin — all within one week. I was then (as often 

 since) the ' young man in a hurry ' ; he, the painstaking 



