CHAPTER IV. 



WHAT IN MR. DARWIN HIMSELF CONDITIONED THE WORK 

 AND ITS SUCCESS. 



So much for others. We come now to what it was in Mr. 

 Darwin himself that led to the peculiarity of the work, 

 its success included. 



Of course, it was the hereditary bee hypothesis that 

 gave form to the work itself, as it was compilation in 

 natural history that found it in matter. Coming a little 

 closer, however ; we have seen that the grandfather was 

 minded on the whole to trace all life to an original fila- 

 ment ; and we have seen also that stir, movement before 

 the eyes, was probably what gave the lirst shock of 

 curiosity to the grandson. Suppose, then, we bring both 

 filament and stir together in a beetle this for the Origin ! 

 There are so many beetles Hydroporus,Hydrobius,Hydro- 

 philus Violet Black, Large Smooth Black, Long Smooth 

 Black, it is quite possible that the young man, seeing so 

 many of them, and all of them so much alike, may have 

 asked himself some fine day, could each species have been 

 separately created ? might not one species just have 

 varied from another ? arid in such a manner, too, 

 that one single species was the original of the whole 

 of them ? In his own words, Have not " allied 

 species just descended from common stocks " ? And 

 only to put it in that way, is it not at once righteously 



