[292] Page 238. [293] See _ante_, pp. 220-228. [294] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 239. [295] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p 240. [296] Page 241. [297] Page 245. [298] 'Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. i. p. 467, &c. [299] See frontispiece to Professor Mivart's 'Genesis of Species.' [300] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 247. [301] Page 248. [302] 'Nat. Theol.,' vol. xii., end of Sec. viii. [303] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 249. [304] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 250. [305] Page 250. [306] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 251. [307] Page 252. [308] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 253. [309] Page 254. [310] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 256. [311] Page 257. [312] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 259. [313] Page 260. [314] Page 263. [315] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 263. [316] Page 265. [317] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 343. [318] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 343. [319] Page 346. [320] 'Phil. Zool.,' tom. i. p. 347. CHAPTER XVIII. MR. PATRICK MATTHEW, MM. ETIENNE AND ISIDORE GEOFFROY ST. HILAIRE, AND MR. HERBERT SPENCER. The same complaint must be made against Mr. Matthew's excellent survey of the theory of evolution, as against Dr. Erasmus Darwin's original exposition of the same theory, namely, that it is too short. It may be very true that brevity is the soul of wit, but the leaders of science will generally succeed in burking new-born wit, unless the brevity of its soul is found compatible with a body of some bulk. Mr. Darwin writes thus concerning Mr. Matthew in the historical sketch to which I have already more than once referred. "In 1831 Mr. Patrick Matthew published his work on 'Naval Timber and Arboriculture,' in which he gives precisely the same view on the origin of species as that (presently to be alluded to) propounded by Mr. Wallace and myself in the 'Linnean Journal,' and as that enlarged in the present volume. Unfortunately the view was given by Mr. Matthew very briefly, in scattered passages in an appendix to a work on a different subject, so that it remained unnoticed until Mr. Matthew himself drew attention to it in the 'Gardener's Chronicle' for April 7, 1860. The differences of Mr. Matthew's view from mine are not of much importance; he seems to consider that the world was nearly depopulated at successive periods, and then re-stocked, and he gives as an alternative, that new forms may be generated 'without the presence of any mould or germ of former aggregates.' I am not sure that I understand some passages; but it seems that he attributes much influence to the direct action of the conditions of life. He clearly saw, however, the full force of the principle of natural selection."[321]