red to me that by following the
example of Lyell in Geology, and by collecting all facts which bore in
any way on the variation of animals and plants under domestication and
nature, some light might perhaps be thrown on the whole subject. My
first note-book was opened in July 1837. I worked on true Baconian
principles; and without any theory collected facts on a wholesale scale,
more especially with respect to domesticated productions, by printed
inquiries, by conversation with skillful breeders and gardeners, and by
extensive reading. When I see the list of books of all kinds which I
read and abstracted, including whole series of Journals and
Transactions, I am surprised at my industry. I soon perceived that
selection was the keystone of man's success in making useful races of
animals and plants. But how selection could be applied to organisms
living in a state of nature, remained for some time a mystery to me.

In October 1838--that is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic
inquiry--I happened to read for amusement 'Malthus on Population'; and
being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which
everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of
animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances
favorable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavorable ones to
be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species.
Here then I had at last got a theory by which to work; but I was so
anxious to avoid prejudice that I determined not for some time to write
even the briefest sketch of it. In June 1842 I first allowed myself the
satisfaction of writing a very brief abstract of my theory in pencil in
thirty-five pages; and this was enlarged during the summer of 1844 into
one of two hundred and thirty pages, which I had fairly copied out and
still possess.

[Illustration: _THE APE-MAN_

Photogravure from a painting by Gabriel Max.

Professor Max has long been known to the greater public through those
wonderful pictures in which some tragic fate, some heart-break of
mankind, has found expression; but only an inner circle of intimates has
known the artist as an able student of nature. He has thought much and
deeply upon the existence and origin of things; and his studies in
comparative anatomy have given him unusual preparation for the treatment
of the present subject. The entire picture is made up of yellowish and
brownish-gray tones, expre