Chapter 16

work of 1844.

The fact that in 1842, seventeen years before the publication of the _Origin_, my father should have been able to write out so full an outline of his future work, is very remarkable. In his Autobiography{25} he writes of the 1844 Essay, "But at that time I overlooked one problem of great importance.... This problem is the tendency in organic beings descended from the same stock to diverge in character as they become modified." The absence of the principle of divergence is of course also a characteristic of the sketch of 1842. But at p. 37, the author is not far from this point of view. The passage referred to is: "If any species, _A_, in changing gets an advantage and that advantage ... is inherited, _A_ will be the progenitor of several genera or even families in the hard struggle of nature. _A_ will go on beating out other forms, it might come that _A_ would people earth,--we may now not have one descendant on our globe of the one or several original creations{26}." But if the descendants of _A_ have peopled the earth by beating out other forms, they must have diverged in occupying the innumerable diverse modes of life from which they expelled their predecessors. What I wrote{27} on this subject in 1887 is I think true: "Descent with modification implies divergence, and we become so habituated to a belief in descent, and therefore in divergence, that we do not notice the absence of proof that divergence is in itself an advantage."

{25} _Life and Letters_, i. p. 84.

{26} In the footnotes to the Essay of 1844 attention is called to similar passages.

{27} _Life and Letters_, ii. p. 15.

The fact that there is no set discussion on the principle of divergence in the 1844 Essay, makes it clear why the joint paper read before the Linnean Society on July 1, 1858, included a letter{28} to Asa Gray, as well as an extract{29} from the Essay of 1844. It is clearly because the letter to Gray includes a discussion on divergence, and was thus, probably, the only document, including this subject, which could be appropriately made use of. It shows once more how great was the importance attached by its author to the principle of divergence.

{28} The passage is given in the _Life and Letters_, ii. p. 124.

{29} The extract consists of the section on _Natural Means of Selection_, p. 87.

I have spoken of the hurried and condensed manner in which the sketch of 1842 is written; the style of the later Essay (1844) is more finished. It has, however, the air of an uncorrected MS. rather than of a book which has gone through the ordeal of proof sheets. It has not all the force and conciseness of the _Origin_, but it has a certain freshness which gives it a character of its own. It must be remembered that the _Origin_ was an abstract or condensation of a much bigger book, whereas the Essay of 1844 was an expansion of the sketch of 1842. It is not therefore surprising that in the _Origin_ there is occasionally evident a chafing against the author's self-imposed limitation. Whereas in the 1844 Essay there is an air of freedom, as if the author were letting himself go, rather than applying the curb. This quality of freshness and the fact that some questions were more fully discussed in 1844 than in 1859, makes the earlier work good reading even to those who are familiar with the _Origin_.

The writing of this Essay "during the summer of 1844," as stated in the Autobiography{30}, and "from memory," as Darwin says elsewhere{31}, was a remarkable achievement, and possibly renders more conceivable the still greater feat of the writing of the _Origin_ between July 1858 and September 1859.

{30} _Life and Letters_, i. p. 84.

{31} _Life and Letters_, ii. p. 18.

It is an interesting subject for speculation: what influence on the world the Essay of 1844 would have exercised, had it been published in place of the Origin. The author evidently thought of its publication in its present state as an undesirable expedient, as appears clearly from the following extracts from the _Life and Letters_, vol. ii. pp. 16--18:

_C. Darwin to Mrs Darwin._

DOWN, _July 5, 1844_.

"... I have just finished my sketch of my species theory. If, as I believe, my theory in time be accepted even by one competent judge, it will be a considerable step in science.

"I therefore write this in case of my sudden death, as my most solemn and last request, which I am sure you will consider the same as if legally entered in my will, that you will devote £400 to its publication, and further will yourself, or through Hensleigh{32}, take trouble in promoting it. I wish that my sketch be given to some competent person, with this sum to induce him to take trouble in its improvement and enlargement. I give to him all my books on Natural History, which are either scored or have references at the end to the pages, begging him carefully to look over and consider such passages as actually bearing, or by possibility bearing, on this subject. I wish you to make a list of all such books as some temptation to an editor. I also request that you will hand over him all those scraps roughly divided into eight or ten brown paper portfolios. The scraps, with copied quotations from various works, are those which may aid my editor. I also request that you, or some amanuensis, will aid in deciphering any of the scraps which the editor may think possibly of use. I leave to the editor's judgment whether to interpolate these facts in the text, or as notes, or under appendices. As the looking over the references and scraps will be a long labour, and as the _correcting_ and enlarging and altering my sketch will also take considerable time, I leave this sum of £400 as some remuneration, and any profits from the work. I consider that for this the editor is bound to get the sketch published either at a publisher's or his own risk. Many of the scraps in the portfolios contain mere rude suggestions and early views, now useless, and many of the facts will probably turn out as having no bearing on my theory.

{32} Mrs Darwin's brother.

"With respect to editors, Mr Lyell would be the best if he would undertake it; I believe he would find the work pleasant, and he would learn some facts new to him. As the editor must be a geologist as well as a naturalist, the next best editor would be Professor Forbes of London. The next best (and quite best in many respects) would be Professor Henslow. Dr Hooker would be _very_ good. The next, Mr Strickland{33}. If none of these would undertake it, I would request you to consult with Mr Lyell, or some other capable man, for some editor, a geologist and naturalist. Should one other hundred pounds make the difference of procuring a good editor, I request earnestly that you will raise £500.

{33} After Mr Strickland's name comes the following sentence, which has been erased, but remains legible. "Professor Owen would be very good; but I presume he would not undertake such a work."

"My remaining collections in Natural History may be given to any one or any museum where would be accepted...."

"Lyell, especially with the aid of Hooker (and of any good zoological aid), would be best of all. Without an editor will pledge himself to give up time to it, it would be of no use paying such a sum.

"If there should be any difficulty in getting an editor who would go thoroughly into the subject, and think of the bearing of the passages marked in the books and copied out of scraps of paper, then let my sketch be published as it is, stating that it was done several years ago{34}, and from memory without consulting any works, and with no intention of publication in its present form."

{34} The words "several years ago, and" seem to have been added at a later date.

The idea that the sketch of 1844 might remain, in the event of his death, as the only record of his work, seems to have been long in his mind, for in August, 1854, when he had finished with the Cirripedes, and was thinking of beginning his "species work," he added on the back of the above letter, "Hooker by far best man to edit my species volume. August 1854."

I have called attention in footnotes to many points in which the _Origin_ agrees with the _Foundations_. One of the most interesting is the final sentence, practically the same in the Essays of 1842 and 1844, and almost identical with the concluding words of the _Origin_. I have elsewhere pointed out{35} that the ancestry of this eloquent passage may be traced one stage further back,--to the Note Book of 1837. I have given this sentence as an appropriate motto for the _Foundations_ in its character of a study of general laws. It will be remembered that a corresponding motto from Whewell's _Bridgewater Treatise_ is printed opposite the title-page of the _Origin of Species_.

{35} _Life and Letters_, ii. p. 9.

Mr Huxley who, about the year 1887, read the Essay of 1844, remarked that "much more weight is attached to the influence of external conditions in producing variation and to the inheritance of acquired habits than in the _Origin_." In the _Foundations_ the effect of conditions is frequently mentioned, and Darwin seems to have had constantly in mind the need of referring each variation to a cause. But I gain the impression that the slighter prominence given to this view in the _Origin_ was not due to change of opinion, but rather because he had gradually come to take this view for granted; so that in the scheme of that book, it was overshadowed by considerations which then seemed to him more pressing. With regard to the inheritance of acquired characters I am not inclined to agree with Huxley. It is certain that the _Foundations_ contains strong recognition of the importance of germinal variation, that is of external conditions acting indirectly through the "reproductive functions." He evidently considered this as more important than the inheritance of habit or other acquired peculiarities.

Another point of interest is the weight he attached in 1842-4 to "sports" or what are now called "mutations." This is I think more prominent in the _Foundations_ than in the first edition of the _Origin_, and certainly than in the fifth and sixth editions.

Among other interesting points may be mentioned the "good effects of crossing" being "possibly analogous to good effects of change in condition,"--a principle which he upheld on experimental grounds in his _Cross and Self-Fertilisation_ in 1876.

In conclusion, I desire to express my thanks to Mr Wallace for a footnote he was good enough to supply: and to Professor Bateson, Sir W. Thiselton-Dyer, Dr Gadow, Professor Judd, Dr Marr, Col. Prain and Dr Stapf for information on various points. I am also indebted to Mr Rutherford, of the University Library, for his careful copy of the manuscript of 1842.

CAMBRIDGE,

_June 9, 1909._

EXPLANATION OF SIGNS, &c.

[] Means that the words so enclosed are erased in the original MS.

<> Indicates an insertion by the Editor.

_Origin_, Ed. vi. refers to the Popular Edition.