Masterpieces of Science 



from the manner in which species of all kinds 

 can be classed under genera, genera under 

 families, families under sub-orders and so forth; 

 and I can remember the very spot on the road, 

 whilst in my carriage, when to my joy the 

 solution occurred to me; and this was long after 

 I had come to Down. This solution, as I believe, 

 is that the modified offspring of all dominant 

 and increasing forms tend to become adapted 

 to man}* and highly diversified places in the 

 economy of nature. 



Early in 1856 Lyell advised me to write 

 out m}- views pretty fully, and I began at once 

 to do so on a scale three or four times as ex- 

 tensive as that which was afterwards followed 

 in my "Origin of Species;" yet it was only an 

 abstract of the materials which I had collected 

 and I got through about half the work on 

 this scale. But my plans were overthrown, 

 for early in the summer of 18 58 Mr. Wallace, 

 who was then in the Malay Archipelago, sent 

 me an essay ' 'On the tendency of varieties 

 to depart indefinitely from the original type;" 

 and this essay contained exactly the same 

 theory as mine.* Mr. Wallace expressed the 

 wish that if I thought well of his essay I should 

 send it to Lyell for perusal. 



The circumstances under which I consented 



at the request of Lyell and Hooker to allow 



of an abstract from my MS., together with 



a letter to Asa Gray, dated September 5, 



* The essay appears in "Natural Selection," London, 1870. 



38 



