CHAPTER XII. 



THE PUBLICATION OP THE c ORIGIN" OF SPECIES.' 



" Remember that your verdict will probably have more influence than my 

 book in deciding whether such views as I hold will be admitted or rejected 

 at present ; in the future I cannot doubt about their admittance, and our pos- 

 terity will marvel as much about the current belief as we do about fossil 

 shells having been thought to have been created as we now see them." 

 From a letter to Lyell, Sept. 1859. 



October 3rd, 1859, to December 31st, 1859. 



Under the date of October 1st, 1859, in my father's 

 Diary occurs the entry : " Finished proofs (thirteen months 

 and ten days) of Abstract on Origin of Species ; 1250 copies 

 printed. The first edition was published on November 

 24th, and all copies sold first day." 



In October he was, as we have seen in the last chapter, 

 at Ilkley, near Leeds : there he remained with his family 

 until December, and on the 9th of that month he was again 

 at Down. The only other entry in the Diary for this year 

 is as follows : " During end of November and beginning 

 of December, employed in correcting for second edition of 

 3000 copies ; multitude of letters." 



The first and a few of the subsequent letters refer to 

 proof-sheets, and to early copies of the Origin which were 

 sent to friends before the book was published. 



C. Lyell to C. Darwin. October 3rd, 1859. 



My dear Darwin, I have just finished your volume, 

 and right glad I am that I did my best with Hooker to per- 

 suade you to publish it without waiting for a time which 

 probably could never have arrived, though you lived to the 

 age of a hundred, when you had prepared all your facts on 

 which you ground so many grand generalizations. 



It is a splendid case of close reasoning, and long sub- 

 stantial argument throughout so many pages ; the conden- 



(218) 



