I therefore accept the crowning honour you have conferred on me
to-day, not for the happy chance through which I became an
independent originator of the doctrine of "survival of the
fittest," but as a too liberal recognition by you of the moderate
amount of time and work I have given to explain and elucidate the
theory, to point out some novel applications of it, and (I hope I
may add) for my attempts to extend those applications, even in
directions which somewhat diverged from those accepted by my
honoured friend and teacher Charles Darwin.
Sir Joseph Hooker was now called upon by the President to receive the
Darwin-Wallace Medal. In acknowledging the honour that had been paid
him, he said:
No thesis or subject was vouchsafed to me by the Council, but,
having gratefully accepted the honour, I was bound to find one for
myself. It soon dawned upon me that the object sought by my
selection might have been that, considering the intimate terms
upon which Mr. Darwin extended to me his friendship, I could from
my memory contribute to the knowledge of some important events in
his career.
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