246 THE SPREAD OF EVOLUTION. [Ch. XIV. 



torical Sketch of the Kecent Progress of Opinion on the Origin 

 of Species," * which now appeared for the first time, and was 

 continued in the later editions of the work. It bears a strong 

 impress of the author's personal character in the obvious wish 

 to do full justice to all his predecessors, — though even in this 

 respect it has not escaped some adverse criticism. 



A passage in a letter to Hooker (March 27, 1861) gives the 

 history of one of his corrections. 



" Here is a good joke : H. C. Watson (who, I fancy and hope, 

 is going to review the new edition of the Origin) says that in 

 the first four paragraphs of the introduction, the words ' I,' 

 1 me,' ■ my,' occur forty-three times ! I was dimly conscious 

 of the accursed fact. He says it can be explained phreno- 

 logically, which I suppose civilly means, that I am the most 

 egotistically self-sufficient man alive ; perhaps so. I wonder 

 whether he will print this pleasing fact ; it beats hollow the 

 parentheses in Wollaston's writing. 



" I am, my dear Hooker, ever yours, 



" 0. Darwin. 



" P.S. — Do not spread this pleasing joke ; it is rather too 

 biting." 



He wrote a couple of years later, 1863, to Asa Gray, in a 

 manner which illustrates his use of the personal pronoun in tho 

 earlier editions of the Origin : — 



" You speak of Lyell as a judge ; now what I complain of is 

 that he declines to be a judgo .... I have sometimes almost 

 wished that Lyell had pronounced against me. When I say 

 1 me,' I only mean change of species by descent. That seems to 

 me the turning-point. Personally, of course, I care much 

 about Natural Selection ; but that seems to me utterly unim- 

 portant, compared to the question of Creation or Modification." 



He was, at first, alone, and felt himself to be so in maintain- 

 ing a rational workable theory of Evolution. It was therefore 

 perfectly natural that he should speak of " my " theory. 



Towards the end of the present year (1861) the final arrange- 

 ments for the first French edition of the Origin were completed, 

 and in September a copy of the third English edition was 

 despatched to Mdlle. Clemence Eoyer, who undertook tho 



* The Historical Sketch had already appeared in the first German 

 edition (1860) and the American edition. Bronn states in the German 

 edition (footnote, p. 1) that it was his critique in the N. Jahrbuch fur 

 Mineralogie that suggested to my father the idea of such a sketch. 



