How I wrote " Life and Habit " 23 



organic development. I got the latest edition of the 

 " Origin of Species " in order to see how Mr. Darwin met 

 Professor Mivart, and found his answers in many respects 

 unsatisfactory. I had lost my original copy of the " Origin 

 of Species," and had not read the book for some years. 

 I now set about reading it again, and came to the chapter 

 on instinct, where I was horrified to find the following 

 passage : — 



" But it would be a serious error to suppose that the 

 greater number of instincts have been acquired by habit in 

 one generation and then transmitted by inheritance to the 

 succeeding generations. It can be clearly shown that the 

 most wonderful instincts with which we are acquainted, 

 namely, those of the hive-bee and of many ants, could not 

 possibly have been acquired by habit." i 



This showed that, according to Mr. Darwin, I had fallen 

 into serious error, and my faith in him, though somewhat 

 shaken, was far too great to be destroyed by a few days' 

 course of Professor Mivart, the full importance of whose 

 work I had not yet apprehended. I continued to read, 

 and when I had finished the chapter felt sure that I must 

 indeed have been blundering. The concluding words, " I 

 am surprised that no one has hitherto advanced this 

 demonstrative case of neuter insects against the well- 

 known doctrine of inherited habit as advanced by 

 Lamarck," ^ were positively awful. There was a quiet 

 consciousness of strength about them which was more 

 convincing than any amount of more detailed explanation. 

 This was the first I had heard of any doctrine of inherited 

 habit as having been propounded by Lamarck (the passage 

 stands in the first edition, " the well-known doctrine of 

 Lamarck," p. 242) ; and now to find that I had been only 

 busying myself with a stale theory of this long-since 

 exploded charlatan — with my book three parts written 

 and already in the press — it was a serious scare. 



On reflection, however, I was again met with the over- 



1 Origin of Species, 6th ed., 1876, p. 206. * Ibid., p. 233. 



