44 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [ch. ii. 



unjustifiable, for I did not then know how generous and 

 noble was his disposition. The extract from my MS. and 

 the letter to Asa Gray had neither been intended for pub- 

 lication, and were badly written. Mr. Wallace's essay, on 

 the other hand, was admirably expressed and quite clear. 

 Nevertheless, our joint productions excited very little atten- 

 tion, and the only published notice of them which I can re- 

 member was by Professor Haughton of Dublin, whose verdict 

 was that all that was new in them was false, and what was 

 true was old. This shows how necessary it is that any new 

 view should be explained at considerable length in order to 

 arouse public attention. 



In September 1858 I set to work by the strong advice of 

 Lyell and Hooker to prejiare a volume on the transmutation 

 of species, but was often interrupted by ill-health, and short 

 visits to Dr. Lane's delightful hydropathic establishment at 

 Moor Park. I abstracted the MS. begun on a much larger 

 scale in 1856, and completed the volume on the same reduced 

 scale. It cost me thirteen months and ten days' hard labour. 

 It was published under the title of the Origin of Species, in 

 November 1859. Though considerably added to and cor- 

 rected in the later editions, it has remained substantially the 

 same book. 



It is no doubt the chief work of my life. It was from 

 the first highly successful. The first small edition of 1250 

 copies was sold on the day of publication, and a second edi- 

 tion of 3000 copies soon afterwards. Sixteen thousand 

 copies have now (1876) been sold in England ; and con- 

 sidering how stiff a book it is, this is a large sale. It has 

 been translated into almost every European tongue, even 

 into such languages as Spanish, Bohemian, Polish, and 

 Russian. It has also, according to Miss Bird, been trans- 

 lated into Japanese,* and is there much studied. Even an 

 essay in Hebrew has appeared on it, showing that the theory 

 is contained in the Old Testament ! The reviews were very 

 numerous; for some time I collected all that appeared on 

 the Origin and on my related books, and these amount (ex- 

 cluding newspaper reviews) to 265; but after a time I gave 

 up the attempt in despair. Many separate essays and books 

 on the subject have appeared ; and in Germany a catalogue 

 or bibliography on " Darwinismus " has aj^peared every year 

 or two. 



* Miss Bird is mistaken, as I learn from Professor Mitsukuri. F. D. 



