158 Darwin and his Teachings. { April, 
through their every-day occurrence, and whose effect in the modi- 
fication of species has never yet been properly considered. 
Notwithstanding that the doctrme of “ progressive develop- 
ment” was (and for that matter is still, by many thoughtless 
persons) branded as atheistical, and although it had been sup- 
ported only by the imperfect observation of a few biologists, and the 
still more imperfect yecords of nature, it had been gaining ground 
rapidly for some time before Darwin ventured to revive it, endorsed 
by the results of an extensive experience, a long-continued course 
of study and reflection, and the honest convictions of a sincere 
lover of truth. Darwin was no apprentice in science when he 
gave publicity to his views. In the winter of 1831, when he had 
attained his twenty-second year, having been educated and taken 
his B.A. degree at Christ’s College, Cambridge, he volunteered his 
gratuitous services as naturalist on board of H.M. surveying ship 
‘ Beagle,’ Captain Fitzroy, R.N., and made a voyage, or it would 
be more correct to say a continuous series of voyages, in that vessel 
to Bahia, thence to Rio Janeiro, Monte Video, Ports Desire, St. 
Julian, and Santa Cruz; the Falkland Islands, Terra del Fuego, 
Valparaiso, Chilée, Lima, some of the islands of the South Pacific, 
New Zealand, Sydney, Van Dieman’s Land, Mauritius, St. Helena, 
Bahia, Pernambuco, and back to Englan:!, where he arrived on the 
2nd October, 1836, having been absent nearly five years, and making 
various exploring expeditions along the coast, into the interior or to 
the islands adjacent to the ports where the ‘ Beagle’ stopped. As ten 
thousand copies of the Journal of his researches during the lengthy 
voyage had been printed in 1860, we may safely infer that most of 
our readers are well acquainted with the contents of the volume, and 
few will be disposed to deny it the merit of being one of the most 
charming and attractive books of travel ever given to the world. 
But irrespective of its undoubted merit in this regard, and irre- 
spective, too, of its value as a record of the scientific and social his- 
tory of the lands and peoples visited by the illustrious naturalist, it 
now possesses a fresh value, inasmuch as its re-perusal, after the 
study of his book on the ‘Origin of Species,’ materially aids the 
inquirer in arriving at a correct estimate of the value of his new 
biological doctrine. Whilst we find in the ‘ Journal’ that vast store 
of information which served as the starting-point for his further 
researches and the basis of many of his subsequent arguments, we 
cannot help being struck with the fact that his views must have 
undergone great modification between the time of his arrival in 
England in 1886 and the first publication of his great work on 
Species in 1859. When he wrote or published the ‘Journal,’ in 
1845, he could hardly be regarded as a very staunch believer in the 
progressive theory ; we are Justified in coming to this conclusion by 
the opening remarks in his ‘Origin of Species,’ where he tells us 
