The kernel of the bias that has done so much harm is not difficult to find. Pursuit of the question as to which one of several supposed causes of evolution is the whole cause, has been so ardent that the extremists among the upholders of the particular cause discovered by Darwin, have been blinded to what he himself has declared to have been the first of two objects in writing the "Origin of Species."
The question of what "Darwinism proper" shall be is relatively insignificant. If one's linguistic taste favors making Darwinism apply to the particular causal principle discovered by Darwin, well and good. Then Darwinism is of no great moment, relatively. On the other hand, if one's taste is more catholic, he will prefer to have Darwinism apply to the really great thing that Darwin did, and the term will mean organic evolution, the unfailing reign of law in the origination of living beings, one of the greatest truths of nature, when its establishment shall be complete, that the mind of man has yet possessed itself of.
While Darwin himself was not without responsibility for this narrowing, withering view of what "Darwinism really is," by far the greater responsibility rests upon two other men, namely, Alfred Eussel Wallace and August Weismann. These two, each truly eminent in his own right, have been looked upon by a too little-discerning biological period as those upon whom the "mantle of Darwin" has fallen. Let us away once and for all with this false and flimsy notion about any man's mantle falling upon some other man! Every man's mantle, be he great or small, is his own alone, and goes to his grave with him, or ought to be allowed to. What kind of self-esteem is that which wants the distinction of wearing another's clothes? Mr. Wallace has certain interesting biological ideas and so has Professor Weismann. The ideas of both have much in common with ideas held by Darwin. Both men have worked out their ideas as best they could, greatly influenced no doubt by the methods and writings of Darwin. But Mr. Wallace's ideas are his, Professor Weismann's are his and Mr. Darwin's were, and shall be, his. Let us take them all and estimate them on this basis. In so far as all three or any two sets are alike, let us recognize the resemblance; but in so far as they differ, let us see the differences also. The relation of Weismann's doctrines to Darwin's I merely touch upon here. It should be recalled that Weismann is a neo-Darwinian
- ↑ "Descent," I., p. 147.
