284 OBITUARY x 
assistance ; but I often doubt whether the subject 
will not quite overpower me.” (II. p. 49.) 
Early in 1856, on Lyell’s advice, Darwin began 
to write out his views on the origin of species on a 
scale three or four times as extensive as that of the 
work published in 1859. In July of the same 
year he gave a brief sketch of his theory in a 
letter to Asa Gray; and, in the year 1857, his 
letters to his correspondents show him to be busily 
engaged on what he calls his “big book.” (IL, 
pp. 85, 94.) In May, 1857, Darwin writes to 
Wallace: “I am now preparing my work [on the 
question how and in what way do species and - 
varieties differ from each other] for publication, — 
but I find the subject so very large, that, though ~ 
I have written many chapters, I do not suppose I~ 
shall go to press for two years.” (II. p. 95.) In ~ 
December, 1857, he writes, in the course of a long : 
letter to the same correspondent, “ I am extremely : 
glad to hear that you are attending to distribution — 
in accordance with theoretical ideas. I am a firm — 
believer that without speculation there is no good 3 
and original observation.” (II. p. 108)! In - 
June, 1858, he received from Mr. Wallace, then - 
in the Malay Archipelago, an “Essay on the — 
tendency of varieties to depart indefinitely from : 
- = 
1 The last remark contains a pregnant truth, but it. must 
confessed it hardly squares with the declaration in the 4 
biography, (I. p. 83), that he worked on ‘‘true Baconi 
principles.” 
