2 THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCES OF 



of our bread-winners are constrained to live ; 

 but it is also, I think, partly due to mere indo- 

 lence. There are thousands of educated persons 

 who, on coming home from their daily work, 

 prefer reading literature of a less scientific cha- 

 racter than that which is supplied by Mr. 

 Darwin's works ; and therefore it is that such 

 persons feel these works to belong to a category 

 of books which is to them a very large one — 

 the books, namely, which never are, but always 

 to be, read. Under these circumstances I have 

 thought it desirable to supply a short digest of 

 the Origin of Species, which any man, of how- 

 ever busy a life, or of however indolent a dis- 

 position, may find both time and energy to 

 follow. 



With the general aim of the present abstract 

 being thus understood, I shall start at the 

 beginning of my subject by very briefly describ- 

 ing the theory of natural selection. It is a 



