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70 - THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 1 
question of species, might be repelled by the 
generally received dogmas, they saw no way o 
escaping from them save by the adoption of 
suppositions so little justified by experiment 
or by observation as to be at least equally dis- 
tasteful. 
The choice lay between two absurdities and ¢ 
middle condition of uneasy scepticism; whick 
last, however unpleasant and unsatisfactory, w. 
obviously the only justifiable state of min 
under the circumstances. 
Such being the general ferment in the minds of 
naturalists, it 1s no wonder that they mustered _ 
strong in the rooms of the Linnean Society, on 
the Ist of July of the year 1858, to hear col 
papers by authors living on opposite sides of the 
globe, working out their results independently, : 
and yet professing to have discovered one and the 
same solution of all the problems connected with 
species. The one of these authors was an able 
naturalist, Mr. Wallace, who had been employe 
for some years in studying the productions of the 
islands of the Indian Archipelago, and who had 
forwarded a memoir embodying his views to Mr. 
Darwin, for communication to the Linnean Society. 
On perusing the essay, Mr. Darwin was not a little 
surprised to find that it embodied some of the 
leading ideas of a great work which he had been 
preparing for twenty years, and parts of which, 
containing a development of the very same views, 
