INTRODUCTION xi 



come to an end, and the " relations of the existing 

 with the extinct species and of the species of the 

 different geographical areas with one another were 

 determined with some exactness." He does not 

 therefore allow that any appreciable advance 

 towards evolution was made during the actual 

 voyage of the Beagle. 



Professor Judd 1 takes a very different view. 

 He holds that November 1832 may be given with 

 some confidence as the "date at which Darwin 

 commenced that long series of observations and 

 reasonings which eventually culminated in the pre- 

 paration of the Origin of Species" 



Though I think these words suggest a more 

 direct and continuous march than really existed 

 between fossil-collecting in 1832 and writing the 

 Origin of Species in 1859, yet I hold that it was 

 during the voyage that Darwin's mind began to be 

 turned in the direction of Evolution, and I am 

 therefore in essential agreement with Prof. Judd, 

 although I lay more stress than he does on the latter 

 part of the voyage. 



Let us for a moment confine our attention to 

 the passage, above quoted, from the Autobiography 

 and to what is said in the Introduction to the 

 Origin, Ed. i., viz. " When on board H.M.S. ' Beagle,' 

 as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts 

 in the distribution of the inhabitants of South 

 America, and in the geological relations of the 

 present to the past inhabitants of that continent." 

 These words, occurring where they do, can only 

 mean one thing, namely that the facts suggested 

 an evolutionary interpretation. And this being so 

 it must be true that his thoughts began to flow in 

 the direction of Descent at this early date. 



I am inclined to think that the " new light which 

 was rising in his mind 2 had not yet attained any 



1 Darwin and Modern Science. 



2 Huxley, Obituary, p. xi. 



