130 THE COMING [CH. 



in the Isle of Wight, where the writing of the Origin 

 of Species was commenced. The work was resumed 

 in September when the family returned to Down, and 

 from that time was pressed forward with the greatest 

 diligence. 



For the first half of the book, the task before 

 Darwin was to condense, into less than one half their 

 dimensions, the chapters he had already written for 

 the large work as originally projected. But for the 

 second half of the book, he had to expand directly 

 from the essay of 1844. 



So closely did Darwin apply himself to the work, 

 that, by the end of March 28th, 1859, he was able to 

 write to Lyell telling him that he hoped to be ready 

 to go to press early in May, and asking advice about 

 publication : he says, ' My Abstract will be about five 

 hundred pages of the size of your first edition of the 

 Elements of Geology! Lyell introduced Darwin to 

 John Murray, who had issued all his own works, and 

 the present representative of that publishing firm 

 has placed on record a very interesting account of 

 the ever thoughtful and considerate relations between 

 Darwin and his publishers, which were maintained to 

 the end 132 . 



The MS. of the book seems to have been 

 practically finished early in May, and Darwin's 

 health then broke down for a time, so completely 

 that he had to retire to a hydropathic establishment. 



