Darwinism (1889) by Alfred Russel Wallace

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That life is not as idle ore,

But iron dug from central gloom,
And heated hot with burning fears,
And dipt in baths of hissing tears,
And batter'd with the shocks of doom

To shape and use.

We thus find that the Darwinian theory, even when carried out to its
extreme logical conclusion, not only does not oppose, but lends a
decided support to, a belief in the spiritual nature of man. It shows us
how man's body may have been developed from that of a lower animal form
under the law of natural selection; but it also teaches us that we
possess intellectual and moral faculties which could not have been so
developed, but must have had another origin; and for this origin we can
only find an adequate cause in the unseen universe of Spirit.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 218: _Descent of Man_, pp. 41-43; also pp. 13-15.]

[Footnote 219: _Man's Place in Nature_, p. 64.]

[Footnote 220: _Man's Place in Nature_, p. 67. See Figs. of Embryos of
Man and Dog in Darwin's _Descent of Man_, p. 10.]

[Footnote 221: _The Descent of Man_, pp. 7, 8.]

[Footnote 222: _Man and Apes._ By St. George Mivart, F.R.S., 1873. It is
an interesting fact (for which I am indebted to Mr. E.B. Poulton) that
the human embryo possesses the extra rib and wrist-bone referred to
above in (2) and (4) as occurring in some of the apes.]

[Footnote 223: _Man and Apes_, pp. 138, 144.]

[Footnote 224: For a sketch of the evidence of Man's Antiquity in
America, see _The Nineteenth Century_ for November 1887.]

[Footnote 225: This subject was first discussed in an article in the
_Anthropological Review_, May 1864, and republished in my _Contributions
to Natural Selection_, chap, ix, in 1870.]

[Footnote 226: _Man's Place in Nature_, p. 102.]

[Footnote 227: For a full discussion of this question, see the author's
_Geographical Distribution of Animals_, vol. i. p. 285.]

[Footnote 228: For a full discussion of all these points, see _Descent
of Man_, chap. iii.]

[Footnote 229: _Descent of Man_, chap. iv.]

[Footnote 230: Lubbock's _Origin of Civilisation_, fourth edition, pp.
434-440; Tylor's _Primitive Culture_, chap. vii.]

[Footnote 231: It has been recently stated that some of these facts are
erroneous, and that some Australians can keep accurate reckoning up to
100, or more, when required. But this does not alter the general fact
that many low races, including the Australians, have no words for high
numbers and never require to use them. If they are now, with a little
practice, able to count much higher, this indicates the possession of a
faculty which could not have been developed under the law of utility
only, since the absence of words for such high numbers shows that they
were neither used nor required.]

[Footnote 232: Article Arithmetic in _Eng. Cyc. of Arts and Sciences_.]

[Footnote 233: See "History of Music," in _Eng. Cyc._, Science and Arts
Division.]

[Footnote 234: This is the estimate furnished me by two mathematical
masters in one of our great public schools of the proportion of boys who
have any special taste or capacity for mathematical studies. Many more,
of course, can be drilled into a fair knowledge of elementary
mathematics, but only this small proportion possess the natural faculty
which renders it possible for them ever to rank high as mathematicians,
to take any pleasure in it, or to do any original mathematical work.]

[Footnote 235: I am informed, however, by a music master in a large
school that only about one per cent have real or decided musical talent,
corresponding curiously with the estimate of the mathematicians.]

[Footnote 236: In the latter part of his essay on Heredity (pp. 91-93 of
the volume of _Essays_), Dr. Weismann refers to this question of the
origin of "talents" in man, and, like myself, comes to the conclusion
that they could not be developed under the law of natural selection. He
says: "It may be objected that, in man, in addition to the instincts
inherent in every individual, special individual predispositions are
also found, of such a nature that it is impossible they can have arisen
by individual variations of the germ-plasm. On the other hand, these
predispositions--which we call talents--cannot have arisen through
natural selection, because life is in no way dependent on their
presence, and there seems to be no way of explaining their origin except
by an assumption of the summation of the skill attained by exercise in
the course of each single life. In this case, therefore, we seem at
first sight to be compelled to accept the transmission of acquired
characters." Weismann then goes on to show that the facts do not support
this view; that the mathematical, musical, or artistic faculties often
appear suddenly in a family whose other members and ancestors were in no
way distinguished; and that even when hereditary in families, the talent
often appears at its maximum at the commencement or in the middle of the
series, not increasing to the end, as it should do if it depended in any
way on the transmission of acquired skill. Gauss was not the son of a
mathematician, nor Handel of a musician, nor Titian of a painter, and
there is no proof of any special talent in the ancestors of these men of
genius, who at once developed the most marvellous pre-eminence in their
respective talents. And after showing that such great men only appear at
certain stages of human development, and that two or more of the special
talents are not unfrequently combined in one individual, he concludes
thus--

"Upon this subject I only wish to add that, in my opinion,
talents do not appear to depend upon the improvement of any
special mental quality by continued practice, but they are the
expression, and to a certain extent the bye-product, of the
human mind, which is so highly developed in all directions."

It will, I think, be admitted that this view hardly accounts for the
existence of the highly peculiar human faculties in question.]

[Footnote 237: For an earlier discussion of this subject, with some
wider applications, see the author's _Contributions to the Theory of
Natural Selection_, chap. x.]

INDEX

=A=

Abbott, Dr. C.C., instability of habits of birds, 76
on American water-thrushes (Seiurus), 117
Mr., drawings of caterpillars and their food plants, 203

Accessory plumes, development and display of, 293

Acclimatisation, 94

Achatinellidae, Gulick on variations in, 147

Acquired characters, non-heredity of, 440

Acraeidae, mimicry of, 247

Adaptation to conditions at various periods of life, 112

Adolias dirtea, sexual diversity of, 271

Aegeriidae, mimicry by, 240

Agaristidae, mimicry of, 246

Agassiz, on species, 5
on North American weeds, 15.

Agelaeus phoeniceus, diagram showing variations of, 56;
proportionate numbers which vary, 64

Albatross, courtship of great, 287

Allen, Mr. Grant, on forms of leaves, 133
on degradation of wind-fertilised from insect-fertilised flowers,
325 (note)
on insects and flowers, 332
on production of colour through the agency of the colour sense, 334
Mr. J.A., on the variability of birds, 50

Allen, Mr. J.A., on colour as influenced by climate, 228

Alluring coloration, 210

American school of evolutionists, 420

Anemone nemorosa, variability of, 78

Animal coloration, a theory of, 288
general laws of, 296
intelligence, supposed action of, 425
characteristics of man, 454

Animals, the struggle among, 18
wild, their enjoyment of life, 39
usually die painless deaths, 38
constitutional variation of, 94
uses of colours of, 134
supposed effects of disuse in wild, 415
most allied to man, 450

Antelopes, recognition marks of, 219

Anthrocera filipendula inedible, 235

Apples, variations of, 87

Arctic animals, supposed causes of white colour of, 191

Argyll, Duke of, on goose reared by a golden eagle, 75

Artemia salina and A. milhausenii, 426

Asclepias curassavica, spread of, 28

Asses running wild in Quito, 28

Attractive fruits, 306

Australia, spread of the Cape-weed in, 29
fossil and recent mammals of, 392

Azara, on cause of horses and cattle not running wild in Paraguay, 19

Azores, flora of, supports aerial transmission of seeds, 368

=B=

Baker, Mr. J.G., on rarity of spiny plants in Mauritius, 432

Ball, Mr., on cause of late appearance of exogens, 400

Barber, Mrs., on variable colouring of pupae of Papilio nireus, 197
on protective colours of African sun-birds, 200

Barbs, 91

Barriers, importance of, in questions of distribution, 341

Bates, Mr. H.W., on varieties of butterflies, 44
on inedibility of Heliconidae, 234
on a conspicuous caterpillar, 236
on mimicry, 240, 243, 249

Bathmism or growth-force, Cope on, 421

Beddard, Mr. F.E., variations of earthworms, 67
on plumes of bird of paradise, 292

Beech trees, aggressive in Denmark, 21

Beetle and wasp (figs.), 259

Beetle, fossil in coal measures of Silesia, 404

Beginnings of important organs, 128

Belt, Mr., on leaf-like locust, 203
on birds avoiding Heliconidae, 234

Belt's frog, 266

Birds, rate of increase of, 25
how destroyed, 26
variation among, 49
variation of markings of, 52
variation of wings and tails of, 53
diagram showing variation of tarsus and toes, 60
use of structural peculiarities of, 135
eggs, coloration of, 212
recognition marks of, 222
and butterflies, white in tropical islands, 230
sometimes seize inedible butterflies, 255
mimicry among, 263

Birds, sexual coloration of, 275
cause of dull colour of female, 277
choice of female not known to be determined by colour, etc., 285
decorative plumage of, 285
antics of unornamented, 287
which fertilise flowers, 319
colours of, not dependent on the colours of flowers, 336
no proof of aesthetic tastes in, 336
dispersal of, 355
and insects at sea, 357
of oceanic islands, 358
carrying seeds on their feet, 361
ancestral forms of, 407

Birthplace, probable, of man, 459

Bombyx regia, protective form of larva of, 210

Boyd Dawkins, on development of deer's horns, 389
on origin of man, 456

Brady, Mr. George, on protective colouring of starfishes, 209

Brain development, progressive, 390

Brains of man and apes, 452

Branner, Mr. J.C., on supposed proofs of glaciation in Brazil, 370

Brazil, supposed proof of glaciation in, 370

Brewer, Professor W.H., on want of symmetry in colours of animals, 217

Bromelia, animals inhabiting leaves of, 118

Bronn, Professor, on supposed uselessness of variations of ears
and tails, 136

Butler, Mr. A.G., on inedibility of conspicuous caterpillars, 237

Butterflies, varieties of, 44
small, of Isle of Man, 106
special protective colouring of, 206
recognition by, 226
inedibility of some, 234
mimicry among, 240, 249
colour development of, 274
sexual coloration of, 271

=C=

Caddis-fly larvae inhabiting bromelia leaves, 118

Callophis, harmless mimicking poisonous species, 262

Candolle, Alp. de, on variation in oaks, 77
on variability of Papaver bracteatum, 79

Cardinalis virginianus, diagram showing proportionate numbers
which vary, 65;
variations of, 58

Carpenter, Dr. W.B., on variation in the Foraminifera, 43

Carriers, 91

Caterpillars, resemblance of, to their food plants, 203-205
inedible, 236

Cattle, how they prevent the growth of trees, 18
increase of, in St. Domingo, Mexico, and the pampas, 27

Ceylon, spread of Lantana mixta in, 29

Chaffinch, change of habit of, in New Zealand, 76

Chambers, Robert, on origin of species, 3

Chance rarely determines survival, 123

Change of conditions, utility of, 326

Characters, non-adaptive, 131
transferred from useless to useful class, 132

Charaxes psaphon persecuted by a bird, 235

Chile, numerous red tubular flowers in, 320

Chimpanzee, figure of, 454

Clark, Mr. Edwin, on cause of absence of forests on the pampas, 23
on the struggle for life in the South American valleys, 24

Cleistogamous flowers, 322

Close interbreeding, supposed evil results of, 326

Clover, white, spread of, in New Zealand, 28

Co-adaptation of parts by variation, no real difficulty, 418

Cobra, use of hood of, 262

Coccinella mimicked by grasshopper, (figure), 260

Collingwood, Mr., on butterflies recognising their kind, 226

Coloration, alluring, 210
of birds' eggs, 212
a theory of animal, 288

Colour correlated with sterility, 169
correlated with constitutional peculiarities, 170
in nature, the problem to be solved, 188
constancy, in animals indicates utility, 189
and environment, 190
general theories of animal, 193
animal, supposed causes of, 193
obscure, of many tropical animals, 194
produced by surrounding objects, 195
adaptations, local, 199
for recognition, 217
of wild animals not quite symmetrical, 217 (note)
as influenced by locality or climate, 228
development in butterflies, 274
more variable than habits, 278
and nerve distribution, 290
and tegumentary appendages, 291
of flowers, 308
change of, in flowers when fertilised, 317
in nature, concluding remarks on, 299, 333
of fruits, 304
of flowers growing together contrasted, 318

Complexity of flowers due to alternate adaptation to insect
and self-fertilisation, 328

Composite, a, widely dispersed without pappus, 367

Confinement, affecting fertility, 154

Continental and oceanic areas, 346

Continents and oceans cannot have changed places, 345
possible connections between, 349

Continuity does not prove identity of origin, 463

Cope, Dr. E.D., on non-adaptive characters, 131
on fundamental laws of growth, 420
on bathmism or growth-force, 421
on use producing structural change, 422
on law of centrifugal growth, 422
on origin of the feet of ungulates, 423
on action of animal intelligence, 425

Correlations in pigeons, horses, etc., 140

Corvus frugilegus, 2
corone, 2

Coursers, figures of secondary quills, 224

Cowslip, two forms of, 157

Crab, sexual diversity of colour of, 269

Cretaceous period, dicotyledons of, 400

Crisp, Dr., on variations of gall bladder and alimentary canal, 69

Crosses, a cause of variation, 99
reciprocal, 155

Cross-fertilisation, modes of securing, 310
difference in, 155

Crossing and changed conditions,
parallelism of, 166

Cruciferae, variations of structure in, 80

Cuckoo, eggs of, 216

Cuckoos mimick hawks, 263

Cultivated plants, origin of useful, 97

Curculionidae mimicked by various insects (figs.), 260

Curves of variation, 64

=D=

Dana, Professor, on the permanence of continents, 342

Danaidae little attacked by mites, 235
mimicry of, 246

Darwin, change of opinion effected by, 8
the Newton of Natural History, 9
his view of his own work, 10
on the enemies of plants, 16
on fir-trees destroyed by cattle, 17
on change of plants and animals caused by planting, 18
on absence of wild cattle in Paraguay, 19
on cats and red clover, 20
on variety of plants in old turf, 35
on the beneficent action of the struggle for existence, 40
on variability of wild geraniums, 79
on variability of common species, 80
his non-recognition of extreme variability of wild species, 82
on races of domestic pigeon, 90
on constitutional variation in plants, 95
on unconscious selection, 96
on a case of divergence, 105
on advantage of diversification of structure in inhabitants
of one region, 110
on species of plants in turf, 110
on isolation, 119
on origin of mammary glands, 129
on eyes of flatfish, 129
on origin of the eye, 130
on useless characters, 131
on use of ears and tails, 136
on disappearance of sports, 140
on tendency to vary in one direction, 141
on rare perpetuation of sports, 142
on utility of specific characters, 142 (note)
on importance of biological environment, 148
on variable fertility of plants, 155
on fertile hybrids among plants, 164

Darwin, on correlation of sterility and colour, 169
on selective association, 172
on infertility and natural selection, 174
on cause of infertility of hybrids, 185
on white tail of rabbit, 218
on conspicuous caterpillars, 236
on sexual selection in insects, 274
on decorative plumage of male birds, 285
on development of ocelli, 290
on value of cross-fertilisation, 309
on limits to utility of intercrossing, 326
on flowers due to insects, 332
on oceanic islands, 342
on effects of disuse in domestic animals, 415, 435
on direct action of environment, 419
on unintelligibility of theory of retardation and acceleration,
421 (note)
on origin of man's moral nature, 461
Mr. George, on intermarriages of British aristocracy, 326

Darwinian theory, statement of, 10
not opposed to spiritual nature of man, 478
Dawkins, Professor Boyd, on development of deer's horns, 389
on recent origin of man, 456
Dawson, Sir W., on determination of fossil plants by leaves, 398 (note)

Death of wild animals usually painless, 38

De Candolle, definition of species, 1
on difficulty of naturalising plants, 15
on war between plants, 16
on origin of useful cultivated plants, 97

Deer's horns, development of, 389

Degeneration, 121

Delboeuf's law of variation, 141

Dendraeca coronata, variation of wing-feathers of, 51

Denmark, struggle between trees in, 20

Denudation, evidences of, 379

Desert animals, colour of, 192

Deserts, effect of goats and camels in destroying vegetation in, 17

Development and display of accessory plumes, 293

Diadema anomala, 271
misippus, great diversity of sexes in, 271

Diaphora mendica mimics Spilosoma menthrasti, 249

Difficulties in the facts of fertilisation of flowers, 325

Dimorphism and trimorphism, 156

Dippers, probable origin of, 116

Disease and markings, 290

Diseases common to man and animals, 449

Display of decorative plumage, 287

Distribution of organisms should be explained by theory of descent, 338
conditions which have determined the, 341
of marsupials, 350
of tapirs, 352

Disuse, effects of, among wild animals, 415
no proof that the effects of, are inherited, 417

Divergence of character, 105-109
leads to maximum of forms of life in each area, 109

Diversity of fauna and flora with geographical proximity, 339

Dixon, Mr. C, changed habits of chaffinch in New Zealand, 76

Dogs, origin of, 88
varieties of, 89

Dolichonyx oryzivorus, diagram showing variations of, 55

Domestic animals, varieties of, 88

Draba verna, varieties of, 77

Dress of men not determined by female choice, 286

Dust from Krakatoa, size of particles of, 363

=E=

Eastern butterflies, variation of, 45

Eaton, Rev. A.E., on Kerguelen insects, 106

Edwards, Mr. W.H., on dark forms of Papilio turnus, 248

Eggs protectively coloured, 214, 215
theory of varied colours of, 216

Elaps mimicked by harmless snakes, 261

Embryonic development of man and other mammalia, 448

Ennis, Mr. John, on willows driving out watercresses from
rivers of New Zealand, 24

Entomostraca, in bromelia leaves, 118

Environment never identical for two species, 149
direct action of, 418
direct influence of, 426
as initiator of variations, 436
action of, overpowered by natural selection, 437

Ethical aspect of the struggle for existence, 36

Euchelia jacobeae inedible, 235

Everett, Mr. A., on a caterpillar resembling moss, 205

Evidence of evolution that may be expected among fossil forms, 380

Evolutionists, American school of, 420

Exogens, possible cause of sudden late appearance of, 400

External differences of man and apes, 453

Extinct animals, number of species of, 376

Extinction of large animals, cause of, 394

Eye, origin of, 130

Eyes, explanation of loss of in cave animals, 416

=F=

Facts of natural selection, summary of, 122

Falcons illustrating divergence, 108
and butcher birds, hooked and toothed beaks of, 422

Fantails, 91

Female birds, why often dull coloured, 277

Female birds, what their choice of mates is determined by, 286
butterflies, why dull coloured, 272
brighter than male bird, 281
choice a doubtful agent in selection, 283
preference neutralised by natural selection, 294

Fertility of domestic animals, 154

Flatfish, eyes of, 129

Flesh-fly, enormous increase of, 25

Floral structure, great differences of, in allied genera and species, 329

Flowers, variations of, 88
colours of, 308
with sham nectaries, 317
changing colour when fertilised, 317
adapted to bees or to butterflies, 318
contrasted colours of, at same season and locality, 318
fertilisation of, by birds, 319
self-fertilisation of, 321
once insect-fertilised now self-fertile, 323
how the struggle for existence acts among, 328
repeatedly modified during whole Tertiary period, 331
the product of insect agency, 332

Forbes, Mr. H.O., on protective colour of a pigeon, 200
on spider imitating birds' dropping, 211

Fossil shells, complete series of transitional forms of, 381
crocodiles afford evidence of evolution, 383
horses in America, 386
and living animals, local relations of, 391

Fowl, early domestication of, 97

Frill-back, Indian, 93

Frog inhabiting bromelia leaves, 118

Fruits, use of characters of, 133
colours of, 304
edible or attractive, 306
poisonous, 307

Fulica atra, protectively coloured eggs of, 215

Fulmar petrel, abundance of, 30

=G=

Gallinaceae, ornamental plumes of, 292

Galton, Mr. F., diagrams of variability used by, 74
on markings of zebra, 220 (note)
on regression towards mediocrity, 414
theory of heredity by, 443 (note)
on imperfect counting of the Damaras, 464

Gaudry on extinct animals at Pikermi, 377

Gay, Mons. T., on variations of structure in Cruciferae, 80

Gazella soemmerringi (figure), 219

Gazelles, recognition marks of, 218

Geddes, Professor, on variation in plants, 428
objection to theory of, 430

Geikie, Dr. Archibald, on formation of marine stratified rocks, 344

Geoffroy St. Hilaire, on species, 6

Geological evidences of evolution, 376, 381
record, causes of imperfection of, 379
distribution of insects, 403
antiquity of man, 455

Ghost-moth, colours of, 270

Glaciation, no proofs of, in Brazil, 370

Glow-worm, light a warning of inedibility, 287

Gomphia oleaefolia, variability of, 79

Goose eating flesh, 75

Gosse, Mr. P.H., on variation in the sea-anemones, 43
on sea-anemone and bullhead, 265

Gould, Mr., on colours of coast and inland birds, 228

Grant Allen, on forms of leaves, 133
on insects and flowers, 332

Graphite in Laurentian implies abundant plant life, 398

Gray, Dr. Asa, on naturalised plants in the United States, 110
Dr. J.E., on variation of skulls of mammalia, 71

Great fertility not essential to rapid increase, 30

Great powers of increase of animals, 27

Green colour of birds in tropical forests, 192

Grouse, red, recent divergence of, 106

Gulick, Rev. J.T., on variation of land-shells, 43
on isolation and variation, 147, 150
on divergent evolution, 148

=H=

Habits of animals, variability of, 74

Hairy caterpillars inedible, 237

Hanbury, Mr. Thomas, on a remarkable case of wind
conveyance of seed, 373 (note)

Hansten-Blangsted, on succession of trees in Denmark, 21

Harvest mice, prehensile tails of young, 136

Hawkweed, species and varieties of British, 77

Hector, Sir James, use of horns of deer, 137

Heliconidae, warning colours of, 234
mimicry of, 240

Helix nemoralis, varieties of, 43
hortensis, varieties of, 43

Hemsley, Mr., on rarity of spines in oceanic islands, 432

Henslow, Professor G., on vigour of self-fertilised plants, 323
on wind-fertilised as degradations from insect-fertilised flowers, 324
on origin of forms and structures of flowers, 434 (note)

Herbert, Dean, on species, 6
on plant hybrids, 164

Herbivora, recognition marks of, 218

Heredity, 11
Weismann's theory of, 437

Herschel, Sir John, on species, 3

Hooker, Sir Joseph, on attempts at naturalising Australian
plants in New Zealand, 16

Home, Mr. C, on inedibility of an Indian locust, 267

Horns of deer, uses of, 136

Horse tribe, pedigree of, 384
ancestral forms of, 386

Humming-birds, recognition marks of, 226

Huth, Mr., on close interbreeding, 160

Huxley, Professor on the struggle for existence, 37
on fossil crocodiles, 383
on anatomical peculiarities of the horse tribe, 384
on development of vertebrates, 448
on early man, 456
on brains of man and the gorilla, 457

Hybridity, remarks on facts of, 166
summary on, 184

Hybrids, infertility of, supposed test of distinct species, 152
fertility of, 159
fertile among animals, 162
between sheep and goat, 162
fertile between distinct species of moths, 163
fertile among plants, 163

Hymenopus bicornis, resembling flower, 212

=I=

Icterus Baltimore, diagram showing proportionate numbers which
vary, 63

Imitative resemblances, how produced, 205

Increase of organisms in a geometrical ratio, 25

Inedible fruits rarely coloured, 308

Insect and self-fertilisation, alternation of, in flowers, 328

Insect-fertilisation, facts relating to, 316

Insects, coloured for recognition, 226
warning colours of, 233
sexual coloration of, 269
importance of dull colours to female, 272
visiting one kind of flower at a time, 318
and flowers, the most brilliant not found together, 335