76 CHARLES DARWIN 



such great man was naturally and inevitably predestined 

 to do. You can always easily manage to get on without 

 any particular great man, provided, of course, you have 

 ready to hand another equally able great man by whom 

 to replace him in the scheme of existence. But how 

 many ordinary naturalists possess the width of mind 

 and universality of interest which would prompt them 

 to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest a politico- 

 economical treatise of the calibre of Malthus ? How 

 many, having done so, have the keenness of vision to 

 perceive the ensuing biological implications ? How 

 many, having seen them, have the skill and the patience 

 to work up the infinite chaos of botanical and zoological 

 detail into the far-reaching generalisations of the ' Origin 

 of Species ' ? Merely to have caught at the grand idea 

 is in itself no small achievement ; others did so and 

 deserve all honour for their insight ; but to flesh it out 

 with all the minute care and conclusive force of Darwin's 

 masterpiece is a thousand times a greater and nobler 

 monument of human endeavour. 



During the fifteen years from 1844 to 1859, how- 

 ever, Darwin's pen was by no means idle. In the first- 

 named year he published his c Geological Observations 

 on Volcanic Islands ' part of the ' Beagle ' exploration 

 series ; in 1846 he followed this up by his c Geological 

 Observations on South America;' in 1851 he gave to 

 the world his monograph on ' Recent Barnacles ; ' and 

 in 1853, his treatise on the fossil species of the same 

 family. But all these works of restricted interest 

 remained always subsidiary to the one great central 

 task of his entire lifetime, the preparation of his pro- 

 jected volume on the Origin of Species. 



