The sun., 1891-05-17

which they differed slighty on each ialsnd Of
the group: none OF the islsnds appearing ~ b
very ancient. in . geographical sense" The
conclusion which he dsduced from these data
wss that species become modified. or, In other
/ words, that their environment os conditions of
life produced changes aud notifications The
question haunted him. and he naturally beKsn
to look sftsr other fsots bearing ubon the ssms
line Of thought. Upon his return to England
| he commenced q systematlc collection OF data
referring to this snbJsct Ths idea, however.
was not yet fully defned:,' he was still
cropping, in the dark when Mslthus on
Population" fell In hts way and was taken up
simply - recreation. From this sonros he OBJ
tanned the suggestion that In the struggle for
| exisience between various formations " Iavor-
| able variations tend to be preserved and un-
| favorable ones to be destroyed. The result OF
this would be the evolution Of now species"
Tho conception came to him like / fash OF
light; yet go viRllant and cautious was he, that
II was not until 1842 that he gave himself the
pleasure OF oven writing out his theory in dis
tlnct outline. This first draft embraced. hs
tells us. only thlrty-fve pages, which two
years later were elaborated to 2so..
Year after year facts were accumulated and
discussed with his friends until. twelve years
aftetward lin 1855. Sir Charles Lyell advised
him to expand and rsvisa his memoranda
and prepare them for publication. Tho book
was about half completed when singular In
cident occurred which reveals as nothing else
could the thorough unseltshness OF Darwjn's
nature. He received one day o lsttsr. from
young Welsh naturalist. Mr.. A. r. Wallace.
who was theh travelling in. the Malay
archipslago. To DarwIns 'hmSxement It
contained an article embodyinR the exact
theory upon which he had besa. laborins
fer so many years in secret The :Isttsr con-
shaA nor nhcntk
the pager to Sir Charles tysll for .considera-
tion at the Linnpap Society, Nsver had q
man greater temptation 10 supnrssa q rival.
silence would have. sneicod. but. Darwin was
not silent He sout the article toaSir Charles
Lyell. bat the latter and or Joseph Hooker
protested against the publication OF It without
q astatement from Darwin wh..: as they person
ally know, had been working on the subject.
for many years. Darwin was At first unwilling
to take any action in tho matter to protect
himself fearing that he might do Wal
lace Injustice: but the difficulty was
finally arranged through the mediation
OF friends. so that the rights OF both natural
lists, who had almost simultaneously conceived
the same idea. were shielded. Tho result was
that Wallaces paper, accompanied by Q letter
frem Prof. Asa Gray and an abstract OF Dar-
wins work, we're contemporaneously pub
lished IN July. 1858. In the transactions OF the
LlnnRan Society. Thirteen months later. Dar-
win brought out the WORK which has immortal
ized his name. tho Origin OF Species"
Curiously enough. the publishers at first
insisted upon issuing an edition OF
only 1880 copies: but few popular
novels have gone OF faster. The entire edition
WAS taken up on the first day. and soon after a
second edition Of 5000 was exhausted. Up to
tho present date. about $4,000 eopio. Of the
"Origin OF Species" have been sold In Eng
land. and the work has been translated into
the language OF almost every civilized nation.
On the epoch aking character OF this work
it would be superfiuous to dwell With it's pub
lication Darwinism was born. and Darwin's
theory was vibrant upon every tongue. The
boldness and originality OF his speculationa.
and the profound and universal interest which
the book awakened. arc now acknowledged to
have marked an era In the progress OF man.
kind. II. W. Fl.