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CHAPTER XV. 



THE EXCISED " MY'S." 



I HAVE quoted in all ninety-seven passages, as near as I 

 can make them, in which. Mr. Darwin claimed the theory 

 of descent, either expressly by speaking of " my theory " 

 in such connection that the theory of descent ought to 

 be, and, as the event has shown, was, understood as 

 being intended, or by implication, as in the opening 

 passages of the " Origin of Species," in which he tells 

 us how he had thought the matter out without acknow- 

 ledging obligation of any kind to earlier writers. The 

 original edition of the " Origin of Species " contained 

 490 pp., exclusive of index; a claim, therefore, more 

 or less explicit, to the theory of descent was made on 

 the average about once in every five pages throughout 

 the book from end to end ; the claims were most 

 prominent in the most important parts, that is to say, 

 at the beginning and end of the work, and this made 

 them more effective than they are made even by their, 

 frequency. A more ubiquitous claim than this it 

 would be hard to find in the case of any writer 

 advancing a new theory; it is difiicult, therefore, to 

 understand how Mr. Grant Allen could have allowed 



