86 LUCK, OR CUNNING? 



able to the reader ? It is impossible to conceive any 

 more complete denial of mind as having had anything 

 to do with organic development, than is involved in 

 the title-page of the "Origin of Species" when its 

 doubtless carefully considered words are studied — nor, 

 let me add, is it possible to conceive a title-page more 

 likely to make the reader's attention rest much on the 

 main doctrine of evolution, and little, to use the words 

 now most in vogue concerning it, on Mr. Darwin's 

 own "distinctive feature." 



It should be remembered that the full title of the 

 " Origin of Species " is, " On the origin of species by 

 means of natural selection, or the preservation of 

 favoured races in the struggle for life." The significance 

 of the expansion of the title escaped the greater number 

 of Mr. Darwin's readers. Perhaps it ought not to have 

 done so, but we certainly failed to catch it. The very 

 words themselves escaped us — and yet there they were 

 all the time if we had only chosen to look. We 

 thought the book was called " On the Origin of 

 Species," and so it was on the outside ; so it was also 

 on the inside fly-leaf ; so it was on the title-page itself 

 as long as the most prominent type was used ; the 

 expanded title was only given once, and then in 

 smaller type ; so the three big " Origins of Species " 

 carried us with them to the exclusion of the rest. 



The short and working title, " On the Origin of 

 Species," in effect claims descent with modification 

 generally ; the expanded and technically true title 

 only claims the discovery that luck is the main means 

 of organic modification, and this is a very difierent 



