384 GROWTH OF THE 'ORIGIN.' [1844. 



in almost all their papers, and which make them interesting 

 even to a non-Botantist." 



" Very soon afterwards [continues Sir J. D. Hooker] in a 

 letter dated January 1844, the subject of the ' Origin of Spe- 

 cies ' was brought forward by him, and I believe that I was 

 the first to whom he communicated his then new ideas on the 

 subject, and which being of interest as a contribution to the 

 history of Evolution, I here copy from his letter " : — ] 



C. Z>arwin to J. D. Hooker. 



[January nth, 1844.] 



Besides a general interest about the southern lands, I have 

 been now ever since my return engaged in a very presump- 

 tuous work, and I know no one individual who would not 

 say a very foolish one. I was so struck with the distri- 

 bution of the Galapagos organisms, &c. &c., and with the 

 character of the American fossil mammifers, &c. &:c., that I 

 determined to collect blindly every sort of fact, which could 

 bear any way on what are species. I have read heaps of 

 agricultural and horticultural books, and have never ceased 

 collecting facts. At last gleams of light have come, and I am 

 almost convinced (quite contrary to the opinion I started 

 with) that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) 

 immutable. Heaven forfend me from Lamarck nonsense of 

 a "tendency to progression," "adaptations from the slow 

 willing of animals," &c.! But the conclusions I am led to are 

 not widely different from his ; though the means of change 

 are wholly so. I think I have found out (here's presump- 

 tion !) the simple way by which species become exquisitely 

 adapted to various ends. You will now groan, and think to 

 yourself, " on what a man have I been wasting my time 

 and writing to." I should, five years ago, have thought 

 so. . . . 



[The following letter written on February 23, 1844, shows 

 that the acquaintanceship with Sir J. D. Hooker v/as then 



