igo LUCK, OR CUNNING? 



he claimed to be the originator of the theory of descent 

 with modification generally ; that he did this without 

 one word of reference either to Buffon or Erasmus 

 Darwin until the first six thousand copies of this hook 

 had heen sold, and then with as meagre, inadequate 

 notice as can be well conceived. Lamarck was just 

 named in the, first editions of the "Origin of Species," 

 but only to be told that Mr. Darwin had not got any- 

 thing to give him, and he must go away ; the author 

 of the " Vestiges of Creation " was also just mentioned, 

 but only in a sentence full of such gross misrepresen- 

 tation that Mr. Darwin did not venture to stand by it, 

 and expunged it in later editions, as usual, without 

 calling attention to what he had done. It would have 

 been in the highest degree imprudent, not to say im- 

 possible, for one so conscientious as . Mr. . Darwin to 

 have taken the line he took in respect of descent with 

 modification generally, if he were not provided with 

 some ostensibly distinctive feature, in virtue of which, 

 if people said anything, he might claim to have 

 advanced something different, and widely different, 

 from the theory of evolution propounded by his illus- 

 trious predecessors ; a distinctive theory of some sort, 

 therefore, had got to be looked for — and if people look 

 in this spirit they can generally find. 



I imagine that Mr. Darwin, casting about for a 

 substantial difference, and being unable to find one, 

 committed the Gladstonian blunder of mistaking an 

 unsubstantial for a substantial one. It was doubtless 

 because he suspected it that he never took us fully 

 , into his confidence, nor in all probability allowed eyen 



