﻿Introduction. 



ii 



does so in order to express an almost contemptuous 

 dissatisfaction, and a total absence of obligation. 

 Hence, having regard to the "generosity" with 

 which he always acknowledged obligations, there 

 can be no reasonable doubt that Darwin was not in 

 the smallest degree influenced by the speculative 

 writings of Lamarck ; or that, even if Lamarck had 

 never lived, the Origin of Species would have differed 

 in any single particular from the form in which it 

 now stands. Finally, it must not be forgotten that 

 Darwin's acceptance of the theory of use- inherit- 

 ance was vitally essential to his theory of Pangenesis 

 — that " beloved child" over which he had "thought 

 so much as to have lost all power of judging it 1 ." 



What has just been said touching the relations 

 between Darwin's theory and that of Lamarck, 

 applies with equal force to the relations between 

 Darwin's theory and any other theory appertain- 

 ing to evolution which has already been, or may 

 hereafter be, propounded. Yet so greatly have 

 some of the Neo-Darwinians misunderstood the teach- 

 ings of Darwin, that they represent as "Darwinian 

 heresy" any suggestions in the way of factors "supple- 

 mentary to," or u co-operative with" natural selection. 

 Of course, if these naturalists were to avow themselves 

 followers of Wallace, instead of followers of Darwin, 

 they would be perfectly justified in repudiating any 

 such suggestions as, ipso facto, heretical. But, as we 

 have now seen, through all his life Darwin differed 

 from Wallace with regard to this very point ; and 

 therefore, unlike Wallace, he was always ready to en- 

 tertain " additional suggestions " regarding the causes 



1 Life and Letters, vol. iii. pp. 72 and 75. 



