Note 118 — Chapter XXI
Reading edition
In 1813 Dr. Wells, first amongst the moderns, conceived, or at least formulated in writing, the idea of natural selection; but Aristotle, as is usual in such cases, had anticipated him as well as Darwin, Wallace, and one or two others, and that in a very unmistakable sentence (see footnote on first page of the “Historical Sketch” in The Origin of Species). It would seem, however, that no one of these conceptions was influenced by any previous one. Of sexual selection Darwin seems to have been the discoverer as well as, in the opinion of many, the demonstrator.