explaining their causes. For in his published words he does attempt to do so[11]. And, although I think his attempt is a conspicuous failure, I ought in fairness to give examples of it. His books are almost exclusively concerned in an application of his theory to the mechanisms of flowers for securing their own fertilization. These mechanisms he ascribes, in the case of entomophylous flowers, to the "thrusts," "strains," and other "irritations" supplied to the flowers by their insect visitors, and consequent "reactions" of the vegetable "protoplasm." But no attempt is made to show why these "reactions" should be of an adaptive kind, so as to build up the millions of diverse and often elaborate mechanisms in question—including not only forms and movements, but also colours, odours, and secretions. For my own part I confess that, even granting to an ultra-Lamarckian extent the inheritance of acquired characters, I could conceive of "self-adaptation" alone producing all such innumerable and diversified adjustments only after seeing, with Cardinal Newman, an angel in every flower. Yet Mr. Henslow somewhat vehemently repudiates any association between his theory and that of teleology.

On the whole, then, I regard all the works which are here classed together (those by Cope, Geddes, and Henslow), as resembling one another both in their merits and defects. Their common merits lie in their erudition and much of their criticism, while their common defects consist on the one hand in not sufficiently distinguishing between mere statements and real explanations of facts, and, on the other, in not perceiving that the theories severally suggested as substitutes for that of natural selection, even if they be granted true, could be accepted only as co-operative factors, and by no stretch of logic as substitutes.

Turning now to Mr. Wallace's work on Darwinism, we have to notice, in the first place, that its doctrine differs from "Darwinism" in regard to the important dogma which it is the leading purpose of that work to sustain—namely, that "the law of utility" is, to all intents and purposes, universal, with the result that natural selection is virtually the only cause of organic 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 selection; 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[12], he practically concludes that, on inductive or empirical grounds, there is no such other law or cause to be entertained—until we come to the particular 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 Mr. Wallace has chosen a suitable title for his book; because, in view of the points just mentioned, it is unquestionable that Darwinism differs more widely from the Origin of Species than does the Origin of Species from the writings of the Neo-Lamarckians. But, passing over this merely nominal matter, a few words ought to be added on the very material question regarding the human mind. In subsequent chapters the more general question, or that which relates to the range of utility and natural selection elsewhere will be fully considered.

Mr. Wallace says,—

"The immense interest that attaches to the origin of the human race, and the amount of misconception which prevails regarding the essential teachings of Darwin's theory on the question, as well as regarding my own special views upon it, induce me to devote a final chapter to its discussion."

Now I am not aware that there is any misconception in any quarter as to the essential teachings of Darwin's theory on this question. Surely it is rather the case that there is a very general and very complete understanding on this point, both by the friends and the foes of Darwin's theory—so much so, indeed, that it is about the only point of similar import in all Darwin's writings of which this can be said. Mr. Wallace's "special views" on the other hand are, briefly stated, that certain features, both of the morphology and the psychology of man, are inexplicable by natural selection—or indeed by any other cause of the kind ordinarily understood by the term natural: they can be explained only by supposing "the intervention of some distinct individual intelligence," which, however, need not necessarily be "one Supreme Intelligence," but some other order of Personality standing anywhere in "an infinite chasm between man and the Great Mind of the universe[13]." Let us consider separately the corporeal and the mental peculiarities which are given as justifying this important conclusion.

The bodily peculiarities are the feet, the hands, the brain, the voice, and the naked skin.

As regards the feet Mr. Wallace writes, "It is difficult to see why the prehensile power [of the great toe] should have been taken away," because, although "it may not be compatible with perfectly easy erect locomotion," "how can we conceive that early man, as an animal, gained anything by purely erect locomotion[14]?" But surely it is not difficult to conceive this. In the proportion that our simian progenitors ceased to be arboreal in their habits (and there may well have been very good utilitarian reasons for such a change of habitat, analogous to those which are known to have occurred in the phylogenesis of countless other animals), it would clearly have been of advantage to them that their already semi-erect attitude should have been rendered more and more erect. To name one among several probabilities, the more erect the attitude, and the more habitually it was assumed, the more would the hands have been liberated for all the important purposes of manipulation. The principle of the physiological division of labour would thus have come more and more into play: natural selection would therefore have rendered the upper extremities more and more suited to the execution of these purposes, while at the same