224 THE METHOD OF DARWIN. 



It is not recorded at what point in his read- 

 ing of Malthus it struck him that the struggle 

 for existence, by working upon variations, would 

 produce new species. Probably with his mind 

 so thoroughly imbued with the subject that 

 everything he read was made to bear upon the 

 problem he almost instantaneously caught the 

 significance of the principle. Malthus himself 

 stated the principle clearly in the first few 

 pages of the book, and already on pages 21, 22, 

 of the ninth edition stated its action and effects 

 upon the American Indians. The significance 

 of these details is great from the logical point 

 of view. All the years of the Beagle voyage 

 had prepared Darwin to appreciate the principle. 

 The time since his return had strengthened his 

 belief in the descent of species, and his efforts 

 to reach the cause of modification inductively 

 had brought him detailed knowledge of both 

 variations and adaptations. What he had not 

 hitherto been able to discover by induction 

 came to him by accident, if it can be said that 

 anything can come by accident to a mind so 

 much on the alert for it. It would have been 

 one of the most fascinating chapters in scien- 

 tific discovery if he had recorded in detail the 

 mental activity and the feelings that must have 

 flooded him from the moment the discovery was 



