Note 7 — I DARWIN'S PREDECESSORS

Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace writes: "We claim for Darwin that he is the Newton of natural history, and that, just so surely as that the discovery and demonstration by Newton of the law of gravitation established order in place of chaos and laid a sure foundation for all future study of the starry heavens, so surely has Darwin, by his discovery of the law of natural selection and his demonstration of the great principle of the preservation of useful variations in the struggle for life, not only thrown a flood of light on the process of development of the whole organic world, but also established a firm foundation for all future study of nature" (Darwinism, London, 1889, p. 9). See also Prof. Karl Pearson's Grammar of Science (2nd edit.), London, 1900, p. 32. See Osborn, op. cit. p. 100.