Contributions to the theory of natural selection. A series of essays ... By Alfred Russel Wallace ...

iv PREFACE.
by me before I had the least notion of the scope and
nature of TMr. Darwin's labours. They were published
in a way not likely to attract the attention of any but
w6rking naturalists, and I feel sure that many who
have heard of them, have never had the opportunity
of ascertaining how much or how little they really contain. It therefore happens, that, while some writers
give me more credit than I deserve, others may very
naturally class me with Dr. Wells and Mr. Patrick
Matthew, who, as Mr. Darwin has shown in the historical sketch given in the 4th and 5th Editions of
the "Origin of Species," certainly propounded the
fundamental principle of;"natural selection" before
himnself, but who made no further use of that principle,
and failed to see its wide and immensely important
applications.
The present work will, I venture to think, prove,
that I both saw at the time the value and scope of
the law which I had discovered, and have since been
able to apply it to some purpose in a few original
lines of investigation. But here my claims cease.
I have felt all my life, and I still feel, the most
sincere satisfaction that Mr. Darwin had been at
work long before me, and that it was not left for me
to attempt to write "The Origin of Species." I have
long since measured my own strength, and know well
that it would be quite unequal to that task. Far
abler men than myself may confess, that they have
not that untiring patience in accumulating, and that
wonderful skill in using, large masses of facts of the