side, while his opponents had manifestly--so far as I can remember,
all the more prominent among them--a bias to which their hostility
was attributable, we left off looking at the arguments against
"Darwinism," as we now began to call it, and pigeon-holed the matter
to the effect that there was one evolution, and that Mr. Darwin was
its prophet.

The blame of our errors and oversights rests primarily with Mr.
Darwin himself. The first, and far the most important, edition of
the "Origin of Species" came out as a kind of literary Melchisedec,
without father and without mother in the works of other people. Here
is its opening paragraph:-


"When on board H.M.S. 'Beagle' as naturalist, I was much struck with
certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South
America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past
inhabitants of that continent. These facts seemed to me to throw
some light on the origin of species--that mystery of mysteries, as it
has been called by one of our greatest philosophers. On my return
home, it occurred to me, in 1837, that something might be made out on
this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting upon all sorts
of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it. After five
years' work I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up
some short notes; these I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the
conclusions which then seemed to me probable: from that period to
the present day I have steadily pursued the same object. I hope that
I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give
them to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision."
{8a}