472 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



late Sir Benjamin Brodie, a man of highly philosophic 

 mind, often drew my attention to the fact that, a8 early as 

 1794, Charles Dai-win's grandfather was the pioneer of 

 Charles Darwin.* In 1801, and in subsequent years, the 

 celebrated Lamarck, who, through the vigorous exposition 

 of his views by the author of the "Vestiges of Creation/' 

 rendered the public mind perfectly familiar with the idea 

 of evolution, endeavored to show the development of 

 species out of changes of habit and external condition. Jn 

 1813 Dr. Wells, the founder of our present theory of Dew, 

 read before the Royal Society a paper in which, to use the 

 words of Mr. Darwin, "he distinctly recognizes the prin- 

 ciple of natural selection; and this is the first recognition 

 that has been indicated." The thoroughness and skill 

 with which Wells pursued his work, and the obvious inde- 

 pendence of his character, rendered him long ago a favorite 

 with me; and it gave me the liveliest pleasure to alight 

 upon tin's additional testimony to his penetration. Pro- 

 fessor Grant, Mr. Patrick Matthew, Von Buch, the author 

 of the " Vestiges/' D'Halloy, and others, by the enuncia- 

 tion of opinions more or less clear and correct, showed 

 that the question had been fermenting long prior to the 

 year 1858, whn Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace simul- 

 taneously, but independently, placed their closely con- 

 current views before the Linnean Society. f 



These papers were followed in 1859 by the publication 

 of the first edition of the " Origin of Species/' All great 

 things come slowly to the birth. Copernicus, as I informed 

 you, pondered his great work for thirty-three years. 

 Newton for nearly twenty years kept the idea of Gravita- 

 tion before his mind; for twenty years also he dwelt upon 

 his discovery of Fluxions, 'and doubtless would have con- 

 tinued to make it the object of his private thought, had 

 he not found Leibnitz upon his track. Darwin for two- 

 and-twenty years pondered the problem of the origin of 

 species, and doubtless he would have continued to do so had 



* "Zoonomia," vol. i. pp. 500-510. 



f In 1855 Mr. Herbert Spencer (" Principles of Psychology," 2d 

 edit. vol. i. p. 465) expressed " the belief that life under all its forms 

 has arisen by an unbroken evolution, and through the instrumen- 

 tality of wliat are called natural causes." This was tny belief also 

 at that time. 



