260 THE SPREAD OP EVOLUTION. [ch. xiv. 



rather stupid reviewers at least understand what is meant. 

 I hope and think I shall improve the book considerably." 



An interesting feature of the new edition was the " His- 

 torical Sketch of the Recent Progress of Opinion on the 

 Origin of Species," * which now appeared for the first time, 

 and was continued in the later editions of the work. It 

 bears a strong impress of the author's personal character in 

 the obvious wish to do full justice to all his predecessors 

 though even in this respect it has not escaped some adverse 

 criticism. 



A passage in a letter to Hooker (March 27, 1861) gives 

 the history of one of his corrections. 



" Here is a good joke : H. C. Watson (who, I fancy and 

 hope, is going to review the new edition of the Origin) says 

 that in the first four paragraphs of the introduction, the 

 words ' I,' ' me,' * my,' occur forty-three times ! I was dimly 

 conscious of the accursed fact. He says it can be explained 

 phrenologically, which I suppose civilly means, that I am 

 the most egotistically self-sufficient man alive; perhaps so. 

 I wonder whether he will print this pleasing fact ; it beats 

 hollow the parentheses in Wollaston's writing. 

 "/am, my dear Hooker, ever yours, 



"C. Darwin. 



" P.S. Do not spread this pleasing joke ; it is rather too 

 biting." 



He wrote a couple of years later, 1863, to Asa Gray, in a 

 manner which illustrates his use of the personal pronoun in 

 the earlier editions of the Origin : 



u You speak of Lyell as a judge ; now what I complain 

 of is that he declines to be a judge. ... I have sometimes 

 almost wished that Lyell had pronounced against me. When 

 I say ' me,' I only mean change of species by descent. That 

 seems to me the turning-point. Personally, of course, I 

 care much about Natural Selection ; but that seems to me 

 utterly unimportant, compared to the question of Creation 

 or Modification." 



He was, at first, alone, and felt himself to be so in main- 



* The Historical Sketch had already appeared in the first German edition 

 (1860) and the American edition. Bronn states in the German edition (foot- 

 note, p. 1) that it was his critique in the JV. Jahrbuch fur Mineralogie that 

 suggested to my father the idea of such a sketch. 



