DARWIN'S THEORY 53 



pendently sketched the theory of natural selection before 

 Darwin was ready to publish his own speculations. 

 Mr. Wallace sent his sketch to Darwin for presenta- 

 tion to the Linnaean Society, not knowing that Darwin 

 had been giving many years of labour to the develop- 

 ment of the same theory, and had accumulated a vast 

 amount of data for its illustration and support. What 

 followed constitutes a pleasing chapter in scientific 

 amenities. Darwin's first impulse was to present 

 Wallace's sketch without pubHshing any account of 

 his own work. He was rightly dissuaded by his friends 

 from such a course, and the joint statements of Darwin 

 and Wallace were pubHshed in 1858 in the Journal of 

 the Linnaean Society. Mr. Wallace promptly acknowl- 

 edged the priority of Darwin, and constituted himself 

 thenceforth a champion of Dar^vinism.^ Mr. Darwin 

 now undertook at the earnest persuasion of his friends to 

 prepare for pubhcation what he called an abstract of 

 the data which he had gathered, and this was published 

 November 24, 1859, i^ ^ closely written volume of 

 fifteen chapters and 824 sections. The book was 

 entitled, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural 

 Selection. The book is so closely packed with detail 

 that it is hard to read, but the first edition was sold 

 before the end of the year and a second edition 

 appeared in January, i860. It is the sixth edition 

 which embodies the author's final corrections, and 



^ This is shown by the title which he has given to one of his works 

 — Darwinism. He did not hesitate to confess his inability to write 

 such a book as The Origin of Species. 



