WHAT CONDITIONED THE WORK AND ITS SUCCESS. 199 



Journal, whether as propounded in it or to be proved 

 from it ; and the Journal may stand for all that Mr. 

 Darwin held before the Oriyin. Then, does .not Mr. 

 Darwin repeatedly rest his case, as to his friend Jenyns 

 (ii. 34), on this foundation : " A long searching amongst 

 agricultural and horticultural books and people makes 

 me believe that I see the way in which new varieties 

 become exquisitely adapted," etc. ? Adaptation, as we 

 know, Mr. Darwin mainly refers to selection through 

 struggle : there is not a word here, then, of the alleged 

 long-continued observation ; all is referred to the in- 

 formation of others. In fact, it is a little to be suspected 

 that on the suggestion of the struggle, the suggestion of 

 the long observation simply followed. Both, that is, and 

 pretty well at one and the same moment, were suggested 

 by. the single reading of Malthus. Expedients of litera- 

 ture were after all not so alien to Mr. Darwin ; one of 

 which is the trick of verbal enhancement and plausible 

 accommodation. See how he puts in the Origin (p. 237) 

 the question of Sterility, for example. Of course, it 

 would considerably block the way to natural selection if 

 the sterility of hybrids should be pronounced absolute. 

 So it is to the interest of Mr. Darwin to discredit it. 

 The truth, however, probably is that sterility is the rule, 

 while the other alternative can only be supported, in 

 " the usual colouring way," on the discrepancies of 

 authorities who altercate with each other about doubtful 

 exceptions. What concerns Mr. Lewes, too, goes in the 

 same direction. It is quite certain that this author can 

 be so quoted as though he praised Dr. Erasmus ; but it 

 is equally certain that in the book the whole figure of 

 the poet or philosopher is a somewhat shabby one. Mr. 

 Darwin could bring himself to take into view from Lewes 

 only what suited him (see the Krause-book). 



Mr. Darwin is never at a loss for what conjectural 



