Note 20 — Chapter I · Introductory: The Darwinism of Darwin, and of the Post-Darwinian Schools.

E.g. "The special faculties we have been discussing clearly point to the existence in man of something which he has not derived from his animal progenitors—something which we may best refer to as being of a spiritual essence or nature, capable of progressive development under favourable conditions. On the hypothesis of this spiritual nature, superadded to the animal nature of man, we are able to understand much that is otherwise mysterious or unintelligible in regard to him, especially the enormous influence of ideas, principles, and beliefs over his whole life and action. Thus alone can we understand the constancy of the martyr, the unselfishness of the philanthropist, the devotion of the patriot, the enthusiasm of the artist, and the resolute and persevering search of the scientific worker after nature's secrets. Thus we may perceive that the love of truth, the delight in beauty, the passion for justice, and the thrill of exultation with which we hear of any act of courageous self-sacrifice, are the workings within us of a higher nature which has not been developed by means of the struggle for material existence." (Darwinism, p. 474.) I have quoted this whole paragraph, because it is so inconsistent with the rest of Mr. Wallace's system that a mere epitome of it might well have been suspected of error. Given an intellectual being, howsoever produced, and what is there "mysterious or unintelligible" in "the enormous influence of ideas, principles, and beliefs over his whole life and action"? Or again, if he be also a social being, what is the relevancy of adducing "the constancy of the martyr," "the unselfishness of the philanthropist," "the devotion of the patriot," "the love of truth," "the passion for justice," "the thrill of exultation when we hear of any act of courageous self-sacrifice," in evidence against the law of utility, or in order to prove that a "nature" thus endowed has "not been developed by means of the struggle for existence," when once this struggle has been transferred from individuals to communities? The whole passage reads like an ironical satire in favour of "Darwinism," rather than a serious argument against it.