How It Came to Be Written 



or thought came across me, which was opposed 

 to my general results, to make a memorandum 

 of it without fail and at once; for 1 had found 

 by experience that such facts and thoughts 

 were far more apt to escape from the- memory 

 than favourable ones. Owing to this habit 

 very few objections were raised against my 

 views which I had not at least noticed and 

 attempted to answer. 



It has sometimes been said that the success 

 of the "Origin" proved "that the sub- 

 ject was in the air," or "that men's minds 

 were prepared for it." I do not think that this 

 is strictly true, for I occasionally sounded not 

 a few naturalists, and never happened to come 

 across a single one who seemed to doubt about 

 the permanence of species. Even Lycll and 

 Hooker, though they listened with interest to 

 me, never seemed to agree. I tried once or 

 twice to explain to able men what I meant 

 by Natural Selection, but signally failed. What 

 I believe was strictly true is that innumerable 

 well-observed facts were- stored in the minds 

 of naturalists ready to take their proper 

 places as soon as any theory which would 

 receive them was sufficiently explained. An- 

 other clement in the success of the book 

 was its moderate size; and this I owe t<> tin- 

 appearance of Mr. Wallace's essay; had 

 I published on the scale on which I began 

 to write in 1856, the book would have been 

 four or live times as large as the "Origin." 

 41 



