CHAPTER X. 



THE GROWTH OF THE 'ORIGIN" OF SPECIES.' 



1843-1858. 



The history of the years 1843-1858 is here related in an 

 extremely abbreviated fashion. It was a period of minute 

 labour on a variety of subjects, and the letters accordingly 

 abound in detail. They are in many ways extremely inter- 

 esting, more especially so to professed naturalists, and the 

 picture of patient research which they convey is of great 

 value from a biographical point of view. But such a picture 

 must either be given in a complete series of unabridged let- 

 ters, or omitted altogether. The limits of space compel me 

 to the latter choice. The reader must imagine my father 

 corresponding on problems in geology, geographical distri- 

 bution, and classification ; at the same time collecting facts 

 on such varied points as the stripes on horses' legs, the float- 

 ing of seeds, the breeding of pigeons, the form of bees' cells 

 and the innumerable other questions to which his gigantic 

 task demanded answers. 



The concluding letter of the last chapter has shown how 

 strong was his conviction of the value of his work. It is 

 impressive evidence of the condition of the scientific atmos- 

 phere, to discover, as in the following letters to Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, how small was the amount of encouragement that 

 he dared to hope for from his brother-naturalists. 



[January 11th, 1844.] 



... I have been now ever since my return engaged in a 

 very presumptuous work, and I know no one individual who 

 would not say a very foolish one. I was so struck with the 

 distribution of the Galapagos organisms, &c. &c, and with 

 the character of the American fossil mammifers, &c. &c, 

 that I determined to collect blindly every sort of fact, which 



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