92 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. in. 



in the 'Historical Sketch' which prefaces the 

 sixth edition (1882) of 'The Origin of Species,' 

 Darwin traces Owen's ideas so far as he could 

 comprehend them. The singular impartiality of 

 Darwin and his increasing endeavours to arrive at 

 the truth, whether it turned against or supported 

 him, permit the quotation of his own words in ex- 

 planation of the question. 



Darwin writes : ' When the first edition of this 

 work 9 was published, I was so completely de~ 

 ceived, as were many others, by such expressions 

 as "the continuous operation of creative power," 

 that I included Professor Owen with other palae- 

 ontologists as being firmly convinced of the im- 

 mutability of species ; but it appears 1 that this 

 was on my part a preposterous error. In the 

 last edition of this work 2 I inferred, and the 

 inference still seems to me perfectly just, from 

 a passage beginning with the words ' no doubt the 

 type-form,' &c., 8 that Professor Owen admitted 

 that natural selection may have done something 

 in the formation of new species ; but this, it ap- 

 pears, 4 is inaccurate and without evidence. I 

 also gave some extracts from a correspondence 

 between Professor Owen and the editor of the 

 " London Review," from which it appeared mani- 



9 Nature of Limbs, 1849. 2 Origin of Species. 



Address to British Association, 3 A nat. of Vert^ vol. i. p. 



1858. xxxv. 



1 A?iat. of Vertebrates, vol. 4 Ibid., vol. iii. p. 798. 



iii. p. 176. 



