INTRODUCTION xv 



It will be noted that in the above passage he 

 does not mention the MS. of the Foundations as 

 being in existence, and when I was at work on Life 

 and Letters I had not seen it. It only came to light 

 after my mother's death in 1896 when the house at 

 Down was vacated. The MS. was hidden in a cup- 

 board under the stairs which was not used for papers 

 of any value, but rather as an overflow for matter 

 which he did not wish to destroy. 



The statement in the Autobiography that the MS. 

 was written in 1842 agrees with an entry in my 

 father's Diary: 



"1842. May 18th went to Maer. June loth to 

 Shrewsbury, and on 18th to Capel Curig.... During 

 my stay at Maer and Shrewsbury (five years after 

 commencement) wrote pencil sketch of my species 

 theory." Again in a letter to Lyell (June 18, 1858) 

 he speaks of his "MS. sketch written out in 1842 1 ." 

 In the Origin of Species, Ed. i. p. 1, he speaks of 

 beginning his speculations in 1837 and of allowing 

 himself to draw up some "short notes" after "five 

 years' work," i.e. in 1842. So far there seems no 

 doubt as to 1842 being the date of the Foundations ; 

 but there is evidence in favour of an earlier date 2 . 

 Thus across the Table of Contents of the bound 

 copy of the 1844 MS. is written in my father's hand 

 "This was sketched in 1839." Again in a letter to 

 Mr Wallace 3 (Jan. 25, 1859) he speaks of his own 

 contributions to the Linnean paper 4 of July 1, 1858, 

 as " written in 1 839, now just twenty years ago." This 

 statement as it stands is undoubtedly incorrect, 

 since the extracts are from the MS. of 1844, about the 

 date of which no doubt exists ; but even if it could 

 be supposed to refer to the Foundations, it must, 

 I think, be rejected. I can only account for his 

 mistake by the supposition that my father had in 



1 Life and Letters, ii. p. 116. 2 Life and Letters, ii. p. 10. 



3 Life and Letters, ii. p. 146. 4 J. Linn. Soc. Zool. iii. p. 45. 



