CHAPTER II. 



WHAT LED TO THE WORK AND THE SUCCESS OF IT. 



WE have begun on the Work. And so here a word is 

 necessary, as well on what it was in Mr. Darwin that led 

 to the peculiarity of that work, as on what it was in 

 others that at least contributed to the success of it. We 

 shall take the latter clause, as simpler, first. 



Mr. Darwin tells us In regard to what " is no doubt 

 the chief work of my life" (i. 86), "my first note-book 

 was opened in July 1837 " (i. 83). That work was, of 

 course, The Origin of Species ly means of Natural Selection. 

 Now, almost from that time onwards to a very late 

 period, there commenced and proceeded a very intimate 

 correspondence on the part of Mr. Darwin with all that 

 then was closest to him in the point of view of friendship 

 and esteem. This correspondence may be divided on the 

 whole into two periods, according as it covers dates that 

 precede, or dates that succeed, the publication of the 

 Origin. In a broad way we may say that all this that is 

 here indicated is contained in the second volume of the 

 Life and Letters, at the same time that not a little of it 

 obtains as well throughout the whole of the third volume. 

 There are only three or four correspondents to whom Mr. 

 Darwin is critically confidential before publication of the 

 Origin; and they are Lyell, Hooker, Asa Gray, and 

 Wallace. There are many, so to speak, scattered corre- 



