"[11] A man,
therefore, may be an evolutionist, without being a Darwinian. It should
be mentioned that Mr. Henslow expressly excludes man, both as to body
and soul, from the law of evolution.
Nor is the theory of natural selection the vital principle of Mr.
Darwin's theory, unless the word natural be taken in a sense
antithetical to supernatural. In the historical sketch just referred to,
Mr. Darwin not only says that he had been anticipated in teaching the
doctrine of Evolution by Lamarck and the author of the "Vestiges of
Creation;" but that the theory of natural selection, as the means of
accounting for evolution, was not original with him. He tells us that as
early as 1813, Dr. W. C. Wells "distinctly recognizes the principle of
natural selection;" and that Mr. Patrick Matthew, in 1831, "gives
precisely the same view of the origin of species as that propounded by
Mr. Wallace and myself." Ideas are like seed: they are often cast forth,
and not finding a congenial soil produce no fruit. To Mr. Darwin is
undoubtedly due the elaboration and thoroughly scientific defence of the
theory of natural selection, and to him is to be referred the deep and
widespread interest which it has excited.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] _Gott und die Natur_. Von D. Hermann Ulrici. Zweite Auflage.
Leipzig, 1866, p. 394.
[9] _The Theory of Evolution of Living Things and the Application of the
Principles of Evolution to Religion_.
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