iv MODERN EVOLUTION 155 



to the preparation of his second, in which he dealt 

 with the history and development of the human race. 

 And what was thus true of England was equally 

 true of the civilised world, regarded as a whole : 

 everywhere the great evolutionary movement was 

 well in progress, everywhere the impulse sent forth 

 from the quiet Kentish home was permeating and 

 quickening the entire pulse of intelligent humanity.' 

 \ The Origin of Species, as we have seen, was 

 intended as a rough draft or preliminary outline of 

 the theory of natural selection. The materials which 

 Darwin had collected in support of that theory being 

 enormous, the several books which followed between 

 1859 and 1 88 1, the year before his death, were 

 expansions of hints and parts of the pioneer book. 

 The last to appear was that treating of The Forma- 

 tion of Vegetable Mould through the Action of 

 Worms. It embodied the results of experiments 

 which had been carried on for more than forty years, 

 since, as far back as 1837, Darwin read a paper on 

 the subject before the Geological Society. Reference 

 to it recalls a story, characteristic of Darwin's innate 

 modesty, told to the present writer by Mr. John 

 Murray. Darwin called on the elder Murray (pre- 

 sumably some time in 1880), and after fumbling 

 in his coat-tail pocket, drew out a packet, which 

 he handed to Murray with the timidity of an un- 

 fledged author submitting his first manuscript. ' I 

 have brought you,' he said, * a little thing of mine 

 on the action of worms on soil,' and then paused as 

 if in doubt whether Murray would care to run the 

 risk of bringing out the book ! One story leads to 

 another, and our second relates to the burial of 



