DARWIN'S BIOGRAPHY. 447 



merous accompanying circumstances of in- 

 terest, all of which cannot here be recounted. 

 It was an abstract of a much larger work, in 

 fact the abstract of an abstract. This bigger 

 book never came out, though much of its con- 

 tents probably went over into the author's 

 later works. The first edition was taken in a 

 day (1250 copies) ; and so it has gone on sell- 

 ing all over the world in many languages from 

 that time to this. The Age took it at once as 

 the most adequate expression of its very soul ; 

 everybody had to read it who wished to hear 

 the voice of the nineteenth century in its clear- 

 est and most concentrated utterance. Another 

 indication of its striking adjustment to the 

 time is the fact that a contemporary scientist, 

 Mr. Alfred R. Wallace, had elaborated the 

 same doctrine of the transmutation of the spe- 

 cies, written it out in an essay which he sent 

 in the sumrfter of 1858 to Darwin, who says of 

 it : " This essay contained exactly the same 

 theory as mine. ' : Still Darwin himself denied 

 that "the subject was in the air," or that the 

 world was ready for it. But not only ready, 

 the Soul of the Age was calling for it, being 

 instinctively evolutionary and striving for 

 some utterance. Darwin spake the right word 

 at the right moment ; he possessed the genius 

 to make himself the voice of the universal 

 Spirit to the eager people a truly mediate- 



