26 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



this Abstract. I have more especially been induced to 

 do this, as Mr. Wallace, who is now studying the natural 

 history of the Malay archipelago, has arrived at almost 

 exactly the same general conclusions that I have on the 

 origin of species. In 1858 he sent me a memoir on this 

 subject, with a request that I would forward it to Sir 

 Charles Lyell, who sent it to the Linnean Society, and it 

 is published in the third volume of the Journal of that 

 Society. Sir C. Lyell and Dr. Hooker, who both knew 

 of my work — the latter having read my sketch of 1844— 

 honored me by thinking it advisable to publish, with Mr. 

 Wallace's excellent memoir, some brief extracts from my 

 manuscripts. 



This Abstract, which I now publish, must necessarily 

 be imperfect. I cannot here give references and authori- 

 ties for my several statements; and I must trust to the 

 reader reposing some confidence in my accuracy. No doubt 

 errors will have crept in, though I hope I have always 

 been cautious in trusting to good authorities alone. I can 

 here give only the general conclusions at which I have ar- 

 rived, with a few facts in illustration, but which, I hope, 

 in most cases will suffice. No one can feel more sensible 

 than I do of the necessity of hereafter publishing in 

 detail all the facts, with references, on which my con- 

 clusions have been grounded; and I hope in a future 

 work to do this. For I am well aware that scarcely a 

 single point is discussed in this volume on which facts 

 cannot be adduced, often apparently leading to conclu- 

 sions directly opposite to those at which I have arrived. 

 A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and 

 balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each 

 question; and this is here impossible. 



