112 EARLY DAYS OF DARWINISM 



will be evident from the following letters and extracts 

 from his writings. 



Not many days after my return home there reached 

 me the part of the Journal of the Linnean Society which 

 bears on its cover the date 20th August, 1858, and 

 contains the papers by Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace, 

 which were communicated to that Society at its special 

 meeting of the first of July preceding, by Sir Charles 

 Lyell, and Dr. (now Sir Joseph) Hooker. I think I had 

 been away from home the day this publication arrived, 

 and I found it when I came back in the evening. At all 

 events, I know that I sat up late that night to read it ; 

 and never shall I forget the impression it made upon me. 

 Herein was contained a perfectly simple solution of all 

 the difficulties which had been troubling me for months 

 past. I hardly know whether I at first felt more vexed 

 at the solution not having occurred to me than pleased 

 that it had been found at all. However, after reading 

 these papers more than once, I went to bed satisfied 

 that a solution had been found. All personal feeling 

 apart, it came to me like the direct revelation of a higher 

 power ; and I awoke next morning with the conscious- 

 ness that there was an end of all the mystery in the 

 simple phrase, " Natural Selection." I am free to 

 confess that in my joy I did not then perceive, and I 

 cannot say when I did begin to perceive, that though 

 my especial puzzles were thus explained, dozens, scores, 

 nay, hundreds of other difficulties lay in the path, which 

 would require an amount of knowledge, to be derived 

 from experiment, observation, and close reasoning, of 

 which I could form no notion, before this key to the 

 " mystery of mysteries " could be said to be perfected ; 

 but I was convinced a vera causa had been found, and that 

 by its aid one of the greatest secrets of creation was going 

 to be unlocked. I lost no time in drawing the attention 

 of some of my friends, with whom I happened to be at 

 the time in correspondence, to the discovery of Mr. 

 Darwin and Mr. Wallace ; and I must acknowledge that 



