37 



2 THE GROWTH OF THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' 



book of 1837. The Sketch is in fact a surprisingly complete 

 presentation of the argument afterwards familiar to us in the 

 * Origin of Species.' There is some obscurity as to the date 

 of the short Sketch which formed the basis of the 1844 Essay. 

 We know from his own words (vol. i., p. 68), that it was in 

 June 1842 that he first wrote out a short sketch of his views.* 

 This statement is given with so much circumstance that it 

 is almost impossible to suppose that it contains an error of 

 date. It agrees also with the following extract from his 

 Diary. 



1842. May 1 8th. Went to Maer. 



"June 15th to Shrewsbury, and on i8th to Capel Curig. 

 During my stay at Maer and Shrewsbury (five years after 

 commencement) wrote pencil-sketch of species theory." 



Again in the introduction to the ' Origin,' p. i, he writes, 

 "after an interval of five years' work" [from 1837, i.e. in 

 1842], "I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and 

 drew up some short notes." 



Nevertheless in the letter signed by Sir C. Lyell and Sir 

 J. D. Hooker, which serves as an introduction to the joint 

 paper of Messrs. C. Darwin and A. Wallace on the * Tendency 

 of Species to form Varieties,'! the essay of 1844 (extracts 

 from which form part of the paper) is said to have been 

 *' sketched in 1839, and copied in 1844." This statement is 

 obviously made on the authority of a note written in my 

 father's hand across the Table of Contents of the 1844 Essay. 

 It is to the following effect: "This was sketched in 1839, 

 and copied out in full, as here written and read by you in 

 1844." I conclude that this note was added in 1858, when 

 the MS. was sent to Sir J. D. Hooker (see Letter of June 29, 

 1858, p. 476). There is also some further evidence on this 

 side of the question. Writing to Mr. Wallace (Jan. 25, 1859) 

 my father says : — " Every one whom I have seen has thought 



* This version I cannot find, and it was probably destroyed, like so 

 much of his MS., after it had been enlarged and re-copied in 1844. 

 f ' Linn. See. Journal,' 1858, p. 45. 



