4o8 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. XXIII] 



direct evidence to show that they were not and are not useful 

 in the ordinary sense, or, as Professor Lloyd Morgan well 

 puts it, not of " life-preserving value," while there is absolutely 

 no evidence to show that they were so. In reply, Darwin has 

 appealed to the effects of female choice in developing these 

 characteristics, of which, however, not a particle of evidence 

 is to be found among existing savage races. 



Besides the literary and scientific work now described, in 

 the last three years of the period now dealt with I contributed 

 about twenty letters or short papers to various periodicals, 

 delivered several lectures, and reviewed a dozen books, in- 

 cluding such important works as Darwin's '* Descent of Man " 

 and Galton's " Hereditary Genius." I also gave a Presidential 

 Address to the Entomological Society in January, 1871, in 

 which I discussed the interesting problems arising from the 

 peculiarities of insular insects as especially illustrated by the 

 beetles of Madeira. 



As it was during the ten years of which I have now 

 sketched my scientific and literary work that I saw most of 

 my various scientific friends and acquaintances, and it was 

 also in this period that the course of my future life and work 

 was mainly determined, I will devote the next five chapters 

 to a short summary of my more personal affairs, together 

 with a few recollections of those friends with whom I became 

 most familiar. 



