WHAT WE OWE TO DARWIN 17 



variety of mouse which burrows in the sand. 

 It seems reasonable to interpret the prevalence 

 of this inconspicuous sand-coloured variety as 

 due to the elimination of the ordinary darker 

 mice by birds of prey. 



Wallace asks the interesting question : Why, 

 after many had failed, did Darwin and he find 

 the same solution of the riddle of progress, namely, 

 in Natural Selection? He points out that they 

 had certain experiences in common : (1) as ardent 

 beetle-hunters from their youth up, they were both 

 accustomed to study minute details and varieties, 

 and they thus had a trained eye for individualities ; 

 (2) "they both had a speculative turn of mind, and 

 were fond of trying solutions ; (3) they both enjoyed 

 the wealth of impressions that travel gives, and the 

 boon of solitude and quiet in which to " attend 

 their minds unto " the problem that " haunted " 

 them ; and (4) both had read Malthus. Perhaps 

 one might add that both had realised the selective 

 processes implied in the keen competitive con- 

 ditions of their time. 



(V) Vindication op the Evolution Ibea. — 

 What do we owe to Darwin ? The first successful 

 vindication of the evolution idea. It was not 

 his own, nor was he its first champion, yet we 

 always, and rightly, think of Darwin and the 

 Doctrine of Descent together. He made it current 

 coin of the intellectual realm. He made the 

 nations " think in terms of evolution." 



The central idea of evolution is that the present 

 is the child of the past and the parent of the 

 future. It is the idea of progressive change from 

 phase to phase without loss of continuity. A 

 process of Becoming leads to a new phase of 



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