372 CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN. 



problem of great importance. . . . This problem is 

 the tendency in organic beings descended from the 

 same stock to diverge in character as they become 

 modified. That they have diverged greatly is 

 obvious from the manner in which species of all 

 kinds can be classed under genera, genera under 

 families, families under sub-orders, and so forth. 

 . . . The solution, as I believe, is that the modi- 

 fied offspring of all dominant and increasing forms 

 tend to become adapted to many and highly diver- 

 sified places in the economy of nature." 



The book was written slowly, each chapter re- 

 quiring at least three months. When the " Origin 

 of Species " which had reached its thirty -third 

 thousand in 1888 - was published, it created the 

 most profound sensation throughout the thinking 

 world. Heretofore, most men of science had be^ 

 lieved that each species had been separately created 

 by the Almighty, that species were immutable, 

 unchanging. 



Mr. Darwin, by twenty years of study, proved to 

 his own mind, and now to most of the world, that 

 there has been a gradual evolution, through un- 

 numbered ages, of one form of animal life from 

 another. He said, "Probably all the organic 

 beings which have ever lived on the earth have 

 descended from some one primordial form, into 

 which life was first breathed." 



The theory of evolution was not original with 

 Darwin. Lamarck, in 1801, published his "Organ- 

 ization of Living Bodies," in which he stated his 



