92 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH, III. 
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 '•* 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 palse- 
ontologists as being firmly convinced of the im- 
mutability of species ; but it appears ' 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.,® that Professor Owen admitted 
that natural selection may have done something 
in the formation of new species ; but this, it ap- 
pears,'^ 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- 
« Nature of Limbs, 1849. “ Origin of Species. 
Address to British Association, “ Anat. of Vert., vol. i. p- 
1858. XXXV. 
' Anat. of Vertebrates, vol. ^ Ibid., vol. iii. p. 798. 
iii. p. 176. 
