ABSTRACT
The limits of man’s knowledge in any subject possess a high interest, which is perhaps increased by its close neighborhood to the realms of imagination. (Charles Darwin, Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, Vol. 3 (1839), p. 345.) It has been so easy to learn something of the Darwinian theory at second-hand, that few have cared to study it as expounded by its author. It thus happens that, while Darwin’s name and fame are more widely known than of any other man of science, the real character and importance of the work he did are as widely misunderstood. (Alfred R. Wallace, ‘The Debt of Science to Darwin.’ The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, January 1883, p. 420.)
