HISTORICAL SKETCH. xxi 



shaken that the Apteryx and the Eed Grouse first ap- 

 peared in their respective homes, " he knew not how/' 

 or by some process " he knew not what." 



This Address was delivered after the papers by Mr. 

 Wallace and myself on the Origin of Species, presently 

 to be referred to, had been read before the Linnean 

 Society. When the first edition of this work was pub- 

 lished, I was so completely deceived, as were many 

 others, by such expressions as " the continuous operation 

 of creative power," that I included Professor Owen with 

 other palaeontologists as being firmly convinced of the 

 immutability of species; but it appears (' Anat. of Ver- 

 tebrates,' vol. iii. p. 796) that this was on my part a 

 preposterous error. In the last edition of this work I 

 inferred, and the inference still seems to me perfectly 

 just, from a passage beginning with the words "no 

 doubt the type-form," &c. (Ibid. vol.. i. p. xxxv.), that 

 Professor Owen admitted that natural selection may 

 have done something in the formation of a new spe- 

 cies; but this it appears (Ibid. vol. iii. p. 798) is in- 

 accurate and without evidence. I also gave some ex- 

 tracts from a correspondence between Professor Owen 

 and the Editor of the " London Eeview,' from which it 

 appeared manifest to the Editor as well as to myself, 

 that Professor Owen claimed to have promulgated the 

 theory of natural selection before I had done so; and I 

 expressed my surprise and satisfaction at this announce- 

 ment; but as far as it is possible to understand certain 

 recently published passages (Ibid. vol. iii. p. 798) I 

 have either partially or wholly again fallen into error. 

 It is consolatory to me that others find Professor Owen's 

 controversial writings as difficult to understand and to 

 reconcile with each other, as I do. As far as the mere 



