The subjects treated with novelty and interest in their important bearings on the theory of Natural Selection were:  (1) A proof that all specific characters are (or once have been) either useful in themselves or correlated with useful characters (Chap.  VI.); (2) a proof that Natural Selection can, in certain cases, increase the sterility of crosses (Chap.  VII.); (3) a fuller discussion of the colour relations of animals, with additional facts and arguments on the origin of sexual differences of colour (Chaps.  VIII.-X.); (4) an attempted solution of the difficulty presented by the occurrence of both very simple and complex modes of securing the cross-fertilisation of plants (Chap.  XI.); (5) some fresh facts and arguments on the wind-carriage of seeds, and its bearing on the wide dispersal of many arctic and alpine plants (Chap.  XII.); (6) some new illustrations of the non-heredity of acquired characters, and a proof that the effects of use and disuse, even if inherited, must be overpowered by Natural Selection (Chap.  XIV.); and (7) a new argument as to the nature and origin of the moral and intellectual faculties of man (Chap.  XV.).

“Although I maintain, and even enforce,” wrote Wallace, “my differences from some of Darwin’s views, my whole work tends forcibly to illustrate the overwhelming importance of Natural Selection over all other agencies in the production of new species.  I thus take up Darwin’s earlier position, from which he somewhat receded in the later editions of his works, on account of criticisms and objections which I have endeavoured to show are unsound.  Even in rejecting that phase of sexual selection depending on female choice, I insist on the greater efficacy of Natural Selection.  This is pre-eminently the Darwinian doctrine, and I therefore claim for my book the position of being the advocate of pure Darwinism.”

In concluding this section which, like a previous one, touches upon the intimate relations between Darwin and Wallace, and the points on which they agreed or differed, it is well, as the differences have been exaggerated and misunderstood, to bear in mind his own declaration:  “None of my differences from Darwin imply any real divergence as to the overwhelming importance of the great principle of natural selection, while in several directions I believe that I have extended and strengthened it."[8]

With these explanatory notes the reader will now be able to follow the two groups of letters on Natural Selection, Geographical Distribution, and the Origin of Life and Consciousness which follow.

PART III (Continued)

II.—­Correspondence on Biology, Geographical Distribution, etc.

[1864-93]

* * * * *

H. SPENCER TO A.R.  WALLACE

29 Bloomsbury Square, W.C.  May 19, 1864.