﻿Introduction. 



21 



evolution. I say "to all intents and purposes," or 

 "virtually," because Mr. Wallace does not expressly 

 maintain the abstract impossibility of laws and 

 causes other than those of utility and natural selec- 

 tion ; indeed, at the end of his treatise, he quotes 

 with approval Darwin's judgement, that "natural 

 selection has been the most important, but not the 

 exclusive means of modification." Nevertheless, as he 

 nowhere recognizes any other law or cause of adaptive 

 evolution 1 , he practically concludes that, on induc- 

 tive or empirical grounds, there is no such other law 

 or cause to be entertained — until we come to the par- 

 ticular case of the human mind. But even in making 

 this one particular exception — or in representing that 

 some other law than that of utility, and some other 

 cause than that of natural selection, must have been 

 concerned in evolving the mind of man — he is not 

 approximating his system to that of Darwin. On the 

 contrary, he is but increasing the divergence, for, of 

 course, it was Darwin's view that no such exception 

 could be legitimately drawn with respect to this 

 particular instance. And if, as I understand must 

 be the case, his expressed agreement with Darwin 

 touching natural selection not being the only cause 

 of adaptive evolution has reference to this point, the 

 quotation is singularly inapt. 



Looking, then, to these serious differences between 

 his own doctrine of evolution — both organic and 

 mental — and that of Darwin, I cannot think that 



1 " The law of correlation," and the " laws of growth/' he does 

 recognize ; and shows that they furnish an explanation of the origin 

 of many characters, which cannot be brought under "the law of 

 utility." 



