252 LUCK, OR CUNNING? 



&c., to be at much pains not to misrepresent those 

 who had been in the field before him. There is no 

 other reference to the " Vestiges " in the " Origin of 

 Species " than this suave but singularly fraudulent 



In his edition of 1 860 the author of the " Vestiges " 

 showed that he was nettled, and said it was to be 

 regretted Mr. Darwin had read the " Vestiges " " almost 

 as much amiss as if, like its declared opponents, he 

 had an interest in misunderstanding it ; " and a little 

 lower he adds that Mr. Darwin's book " in no essential 

 respect contradicts the 'Vestiges,'" but that, on the 

 contrary, " while adding to its explanations of nature, 

 it expressed the same general ideas." * This is sub- 

 stantially true ; neither Mr. Darwin's nor Mr. Cham- 

 bers's are good books, but the main object of both is 

 to substantiate the theory of descent with modifica- 

 tion, and, bad as the " Vestiges " is, it is ingenuous as 

 compared with the " Origin of Species." Subsequently 

 to Mr. Chambers's protest, and not till, as I have 

 said, six thousand copies of the " Origin of Species " 

 had been issued, the sentence complained of by Mr. 

 Chambers was expunged, but without a word of re- 

 tractation, and the passage which Mr. Allen thinks so 

 generous was inserted into the "brief but imperfect" 

 sketch which Mr. Darwin prefixed — after Mr. Cham- 

 bers had been effectually snuffed out — to all subsequent 

 editions of his " Origin of Species." There is no excuse 

 for Mr. Darwin's not having said at least this much 

 about the author of the " Vestiges " in his first edition ; 



* Vestiges, &c., ed. i860 ; Proofs, Illustrations, &c., p. xiy. 



