Chapter XIV Darwin and Descent with Modification (_continued_)
I HAVE said enough to show that Mr. Darwin claimed I to have been the originator of the theory of descent with modification as distinctly as any writer usually claims any theory; but it will probably save the reader trouble in the end if I bring together a good many, though not, probably, all (for I much disliked the task, and discharged it perfunctorily), of the passages in the “Origin of Species” in which the theory of descent with modification in its widest sense is claimed expressly or by implication. I shall quote from the original edition, which, it should be remembered, consisted of the very unusually large number of four thousand copies, and from which no important deviation was made either by addition or otherwise until a second edition of two thousand further copies had been sold; the “Historical Sketch,” &c., being first given with the third edition. The italics, which I have employed so as to catch the reader’s eye, are mine, not Mr. Darwin’s. Mr. Darwin writes:—
“Although much remains obscure, and will long remain obscure, _I can entertain no doubt_, _after the most deliberate study and dispassionate judgment of which I am capable_, _that the view which most naturalists entertain_, _and which I formerly entertained—namely that each species has been independently created—is erroneous_. I am fully convinced that species are not immutable, but that those belonging to what are called the same genera are lineal descendants of some other and generally extinct species, in the same manner as the acknowledged varieties of any one species are the descendants of that species. Furthermore, I am convinced that natural selection” (or the preservation of fortunate races) “has been the main but not exclusive means of modification” (p. 6).
It is not here expressly stated that the theory of the mutability of species is Mr. Darwin’s own; this, nevertheless, is the inference which the great majority of his readers were likely to draw, and did draw, from Mr. Darwin’s words.
“It is not that all large genera are now varying much, and are thus increasing in the number of their species, or that no small genera are now multiplying and increasing; for if this had been so it would have been fatal to _my theory_; inasmuch as geology,” &c. (p. 56).