64 THE COMING [OH. 



return, Lyell was told by Murray that in the three 

 months before the Quarterly Review article appeared, 

 650 copies of the volume, out of the 1500 printed, 

 had been sold, and he anticipated the disposal of 

 many more, when the review came out. This ex- 

 pectation was realised and led to the issue of a 

 second edition of the first volume, of larger size 

 and in better type. 



Lyell, from the first, had seen that it would be 

 impossible to avoid the conclusion that the principles 

 which he was advancing with respect to the inorganic 

 world must be equally applicable to the organic world. 

 At first he only designed to touch lightly on this 

 subject, in the concluding chapters of his first volume, 

 and to devote the second volume to the application 

 of his principles to the interpretation of the geological 

 record. He, however, found it impossible to include 

 the chapters on changes in the organic world in the 

 first volume and then decided to make them the 

 opening portion of the second volume. 



It is evident, however, that as the work progressed, 

 the interest of the various questions bearing on the 

 origin of species grew in his mind. While Lyell found 

 it impossible to accept the explanation of origin sug- 

 gested by Lamarck, he was greatly influenced by the 

 arguments in favour of evolution advanced by that 

 naturalist ; and as he wrote chapter after chapter on 

 the questions of the modification and variability of 



