FIFTY YEARS OF DARWINISM 13 



always feel as if my books came half out of Lyell's brain, 

 and that I never acknowledge this sufficiently; nor do I 

 know how I can without saying so in so many words — 

 for I have always thought that the great merit of the 

 Prmciples was that it altered the whole tone of one's 

 mind, and therefore that, when seeing a tiling never 

 seen by Lyell, one yet saw it partially through his eyes 

 — ^it would have been in some respects better if I had 

 done this less, ..." 



This letter was' written a few weeks after the 

 date, July 5, 1844, which marks the completion 

 of the finished sketch of that year. On July 5 

 Darwin wrote the letter to his wife hegging her, 

 in the event of his death, to arrange for the pub- 

 lication of the account he had just prepared. At 

 this psychological moment in his career he wrote 

 of the influence received from Lyell, and we are 

 naturally led to observe how essentially Lyellian 

 are the three lines of argtiment — ^two based on 

 geographical distribution, one on the relation be- 

 tween the living and the dead — which first led 

 Darwin toward a belief in evolution! The 

 thoughts which shook the world arose in a mind 

 whose whole tone had been altered by Lyell's 

 teachings. Inasmuch as the founder of modern 

 geology received his first inspiration from Buck- 

 land, Oxford may claim some share in moulding 

 the mind of Darwin. 



"COMING EVENTS CAST THEIR SHADOWS 

 BEFORE " 



The characteristic feature in which Natural 

 Selection differs from every other attempt to 



