INTRODUCTION xix 



Lastly, words inserted by the editor, of which 

 the appropriateness is doubtful, are printed thus 

 (variation ?). 



Two kinds of erasure occur in the MS. One by 

 vertical lines which seem to have been made when 

 the 35 pp. MS. was being expanded into that of 

 1844, and merely imply that such a page is done 

 with: and secondly the ordinary erasures by hori- 

 zontal lines. I have not been quite consistent in 

 regard to these: I began with the intention of 

 printing (in square brackets) all such erasures. 

 But I ultimately found that the confusion intro- 

 duced into the already obscure sentences was 

 greater than any possible gain; and many such 

 erasures are altogether omitted. In the same 

 way I have occasionally omitted hopelessly obscure 

 and incomprehensible fragments, which if printed 

 would only have burthened the text with a string of 

 (illegible)s and queried words. Nor have I printed 

 the whole of what is written on the backs of the 

 pages, where it seemed to me that nothing but un- 

 necessary repetition would have been the result. 



In the matter of punctuation I have given myself 

 a free hand. I may no doubt have misinterpreted 

 the author's meaning in so doing, but without such 

 punctuation the number of repellantly crabbed 

 sentences would have been even greater than at 

 present. 



The sections into which the Essay is divided are 

 in the original merely indicated by a gap in the MS. 

 or by a line drawn across the page. No titles are 

 given except in the case of vm., and n. is the only 

 section which has a number in the original. I might 

 equally well have made sections of what are now 

 subsections, e.g. Natural Selection p. 7, or Extermi- 

 nation p. 28. But since the present sketch is the 

 germ of the Essay of 1844, it seemed best to preserve 

 the identity between the two works, by using such of 



