132 



PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. 



fifteen months after I had begun my systematic inquiry, I hap- 

 pened to read for amusement Malthus on Population, and being 

 well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which 

 everywhere goes on, from long-continued observations of the 

 habits of plants and animals, it at once struck me that under 

 these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be 

 preserved, and unfavourable ones destroyed. The result of 

 this would be the formation of new species. 



Shortly after his return he settled in London, pre- 

 pared his journal and manuscripts of observations for 

 publication, and opened, he says, under date of July, 

 1837, " my first note-book for facts in relation to the 

 origin of species, about which I had long reflected, 

 and never ceased working for the next twenty years." 

 He acted for two years as one of the honorary secre- 

 taries of the Geological Society, which brought him 

 into close relations with Lyell, and, as his health 

 then allowed him to go into society, he saw a good 

 deal of prominent literary and scientific contem- 

 poraries. 



In the autumn of 1842, two years and eight 

 months after his marriage with his first cousin, 

 Emma Wedgwood, who died in October last (1896), 

 Darwin removed from London, the air and social 

 demands of which were alike unsuited to his health, 

 and finally fixed upon a house in the secluded village 

 of Down, near Beckenham, where he spent the rest 

 of his days. Henceforth the life of Darwin is merged 

 in the books in which, from time to time, he gave 

 the result of his long years of patient observation 

 and inquiry, from the epoch-making Origin to the 



