e first, contains an outline sketch of the theory of the
origin of species (by means of what was afterwards termed by Mr.
Darwin--"natural selection,") as conceived by me before I had the least
notion of the scope and nature of Mr. Darwin's labours. They were
published in a way not likely to attract the attention of any but
working 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 himself, 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 most varied kind,--that wide and accurate physiological
knowledge,--that acuteness in devising and skill in carrying out
experiments,--and that admirable style of composition, at once clear,
persuasive and judicial,--qualities, which in their harmonious
combination mark out Mr. Darwin as the man, perhaps of all men now
living, best fitted for the great work he has undertaken and
accomplished.

My own more limited powers have, it is true, enabled me now and then to
seize on some conspicuous group of unappropriated facts, and to search
out some generalization which might bring them under the reign of known
law; but they are not suited to that more scientific and more laborious
process of elaborate induction, which in Mr. Darwin's hands has led to
such brilliant results.