1.  On the Law which has regulated the Introduction of New Species.

2.  On the Tendency of Varieties to depart indefinitely from the Original Type.

3.  Mimicry, and other Protective Resemblances among Animals.

4.  The Malayan Papilionidae.

5.  Instinct in Man and Animals.

6.  The Philosophy of Birds’ Nests.

7.  A Theory of Birds’ Nests.

8.  Creation by Law.

9.  The Development of Human Races under the Law of Natural Selection.

10.  The Limits of Natural Selection as applied to Man.

His reasons for publishing this work were, first, that the first two papers of the series had gained him the reputation of being an originator of the theory of Natural Selection, and, secondly, that there were a few important points relating to the origin of life and consciousness and the mental and moral qualities of man and other views on which he entirely differed from Darwin.

Though in later years Wallace’s convictions developed considerably with regard to the spiritual aspect of man’s nature, he never deviated from the ideas laid down in these essays.  Only a very brief outline must suffice to convey some of the most important points.

In the childhood of the human race, he believed, Natural Selection would operate mainly on man’s body, but in later periods upon the mind.  Hence it would happen that the physical forms of the different races were early fixed in a permanent manner.  Sharper claws, stronger muscles, swifter feet and tougher hides determine the survival value of lower animals.  With man, however, the finer intellect, the readier adaptability to environment, the greater susceptibility to improvement, and the elastic capacity for co-ordination, were the qualities which determined his career.  Tribes which are weak in these qualities give way and perish before tribes which are strong in them, whatever advantages the former may possess in physical structure.  The finest savage has always succumbed before the advance of civilisation.  “The Red Indian goes down before the white man, and the New Zealander vanishes in presence of the English settler.”  Nature, careless in this stage of evolution about the body, selects for survival those varieties of mankind which excel in mental qualities.  Hence it has happened that the physical characteristics of the different races, once fixed in very early prehistoric times, have never greatly varied.  They have passed out of the range of Natural Selection because they have become comparatively unimportant in the struggle for existence.

After going into considerable detail of organic and physical development, he says:  “The inference I would draw from this class of phenomena is, that a superior intelligence has guided the development of man in a definite direction, and for a special purpose, just as man guides the development of many animal and vegetable forms.”  Thus he foreshadows the conclusion, to be more fully developed in “The World of Life” (1910), of an over-ruling God, of the spiritual nature of man, and of the other world of spiritual beings.