INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO CHAPTER II 
21 
in which he speaks of its being the twentieth year since he 
“opened his first note-book on the question how and in what 
way do species and varieties differ from each other,” and after 
referring to oceanic islands, the means of distribution of land- 
shells, etc., added : “ My work, on which I have now been at 
work more or less for twenty years, will not fix or settle any- 
thing ; but I hope it will aid by giving a large collection of 
facts, with one definite end.” The words I have italicised, 
and the whole tone of his letters, led me to conclude that he 
had arrived at no definite view as to the origin of species, and 
I fully anticipated that my theory would be new to him, 
because it seemed to me to settle a great deal. The imme- 
diate result of my paper was that Darwin was induced at 
once to prepare for publication his book on the Origin of 
Species in the condensed form in which it appeared, instead of 
waiting an indefinite number of years to complete a work on 
a much larger scale which he had partly written, but which 
in all probability would not have carried conviction to so 
many persons in so short a time. I feel much satisfaction in 
having thus aided in bringing about the publication of this 
celebrated book, and with the ample recognition by Darwin 
himself of my independent discovery of “ natural selection.” 
(See Origin of Species , 6th ed., introduction, p. 1, and Life and 
Letters, vol. ii. chap, iv., pp. 115-129 and 145.) 
