ad been
accustomed to in the Midland counties; and still more pleased with the
extreme quietness and rusticity of the place. It is not however quite so
retired a place as a writer in a German periodical makes it, who says
that my house can be approached only by a mule-track! Our fixing
ourselves here has answered admirably in one way which we did not
anticipate,--namely, by being very convenient for frequent visits from
our children.

Few persons can have lived a more retired life than we have done.
Besides short visits to the houses of relations, and occasionally to the
seaside or elsewhere, we have gone nowhere. During the first part of our
residence we went a little into society, and received a few friends
here; but my health almost always suffered from the excitement, violent
shivering and vomiting attacks being thus brought on. I have therefore
been compelled for many years to give up all dinner parties; and this
has been somewhat of a deprivation to me, as such parties always put me
into high spirits. From the same cause I have been able to invite here
very few scientific acquaintances....

During the voyage of the Beagle I had been deeply impressed by
discovering in the Pampean formation great fossil animals, covered with
armor like that on the existing armadillos; secondly, by the manner in
which closely allied animals replace one another in proceeding
southwards over the Continent; and thirdly, by the South-American
character of most of the productions of the Galapagos Archipelago, and
more especially by the manner in which they differ slightly on each
island of the group; none of the islands appearing to be very ancient in
a geological sense.

It was evident that such facts as these, as well as many others, could
only be explained on the supposition that species gradually become
modified; and the subject haunted me. But it was equally evident that
neither the action of the surrounding conditions, nor the will of the
organisms (especially in the case of plants), could account for the
innumerable cases in which organisms of every kind are beautifully
adapted to their habits of life; for instance, a woodpecker or a
tree-frog to climb trees, or a seed for dispersal by hooks or plumes. I
had always been much struck by such adaptations, and until these could
be explained it seemed to me almost useless to endeavor to prove by
indirect evidence that species have been modified.

After my return to England it appea