370 THE GROWTH OF THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' 



consequence (contrary to what would appear from America) 

 of non-adaptation of circumstances." 



The first part of the next extract has a similar bearing. 

 The end of the passage is of much interest, as showing that 

 he had at this early date visions of the far-reaching character 

 of the theory of evolution : — 



" With belief of transmutation and geographical grouping, 

 we are led to endeavour to discover causes of change ; the 

 manner of adaptation (wish of parents ? ?), instinct and struct- 

 ure becomes full of speculation and lines of observation. 

 View of generation being condensation,* test of highest or- 

 ganisation intelligible .... My theory would give zest to 

 recent and fossil comparative anatomy ; it would lead to the 

 ^tudy of instincts, heredity, and mind-heredity, whole [of] 

 metaphysics. 



" It would lead to closest examination of hybridity and 

 generation, causes of change in order to know what we have 

 come from and to what we tend — to what circumstances 

 favour crossing and what prevents it — this, and direct exam- 

 ination of direct passages of structure in species, might lead 

 to laws of change, which would then be [the] main object of 

 study, to guide our speculations." 



The following two extracts have a similar interest ; the 

 second is especially interesting, as it contains the germ of 

 concluding sentence of the ' Origin of Species ' : f — 



" Before the attraction of gravity discovered it might have 

 been said it was as great a difficulty to account for the 

 movement of all [planets] by one law, as to account for each 

 separate one ; so to say that all mammalia were born from 



* I imagine him to mean that each generation is " condensed " to a 

 small number of the best organized individuals. 



f 'Origin of Species' (edit, i.), p. 490: — "There is a grandeur in this 

 view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into 

 a few forms or into one ; and that whilst this planet has gone cycling on 

 according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless 

 forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being 

 evolved." 



