284 OBITUARY X 



assistance ; but I often doubt whether the subject 

 will not quite overpower me/' (II. p. 49.) 



Early in 1856, on Lyell's advice, Darwin began 

 to write out his views on the origin of species on a 

 scale three or four times as extensive as that of the 

 work published in 1859. In July of the same 

 year he gave a brief sketch of his theory in a 

 letter to Asa Gray ; and, in the year 1857, his 

 letters to his correspondents show him to be busily 

 engaged on what he calls his "big book." (II. 

 pp. 85, 94.) In May, 1857, Darwin writes to 

 Wallace : " I am now preparing my work [on the 

 question how and in what way do species and 

 varieties differ from each other] for publication, 

 but I find the subject so very large, that, though 

 I have written many chapters, I do not suppose I 

 shall go to press for two years." (II. p. 95.) In 

 December, 1857, he writes, in the course of a long 

 letter to the same correspondent, " I am extremely 

 glad to hear that you are attending to distribution 

 in accordance with theoretical ideas. I am a firm 

 believer that without speculation there is no good 

 and original observation." (II. p. 108.) 1 In 

 June, 1858, he received from Mr. Wallace, then 

 in the Malay Archipelago, an " Essay on the 

 tendency of varieties to depart indefinitely from 



1 The last remark contains a pregnant truth, but it must be 

 confessed it hardly squares with the declaration in the Auto- 

 biography, (I. p. 83), that he worked on "true Baconian 

 principles." 



