STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION AT ISSUE. 87 



matter. The book ought to have been entitled, " On 

 Natural Selection, or the preservation of favoured 

 races in the struggle for life, as the main means of 

 the origin of species ; " this should have been the 

 expanded title, and the short title should have been 

 " On Natural Selection." The title would not then have 

 involved an important difference between its working 

 and its technical forms, and it would have better ful- 

 filled the object of a title, which is, of course, to give, 

 as far as may be, the essence of a book in a nutshell. 

 We learn on the authority of Mr. Parwin himself* 

 that the " Origin of Species " was originally intended to 

 bear the title " Natural Selection ; " nor is it easy to 

 see why the change should have been made if an 

 accurate expression of the contents of the book was 

 the only thing which Mr. Darwin was considering. 

 It is curious that, writing the later chapters of " Life 

 and Habit " in great haste, I should have accidentally 

 referred to the " Origin of Species " as " Natural Selec- 

 tion;" it seems hard to believe that there was no 

 intention in my thus unconsciously reverting to Mr. 

 Darwin's own original title, but there certainly was 

 none, and I did not then know what the original title 

 had been. 



If we had scrutinised Mr. Darwin's title-page as 

 closely as we should certainly scrutinise anything 

 •written by Mr. Darwin now, we should have seen that 

 the title did not technically claim the theory of 



* " I think it can be shown that there is such a power at work in 

 'Natural Selection' (the title of my book)." — "Proceedings of the 

 Linnean Society for 1858," vol. iii, p. $1. 



