A well-known French botanist, M. Lecoq, writes in 1854 ( Etudes sur Geograph Bot. tom. i , page 250), “ On voit que nos recherches sur la fixité ou la variation de l’espèce, nous conduisent directement aux idées émises par deux hommes justement célèbres, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire et Goethe. ” Some other passages scattered through M. Lecoq’s large work make it a little doubtful how far he extends his views on the modification of species.

The “Philosophy of Creation” has been treated in a masterly manner by the Rev. Baden Powell, in his Essays on the Unity of Worlds , 1855 . Nothing can be more striking than the manner in which he shows that the introduction of new species is “a regular, not a casual phenomenon,” or, as Sir John Herschel expresses it, “a natural in contradistinction to a miraculous process.”

The third volume of the Journal of the Linnean Society contains papers, read July 1, 1858 , by Mr. Wallace and myself, in which, as stated in the introductory remarks to this volume, the theory of natural selection is promulgated by Mr. Wallace with admirable force and clearness.