ssive of the twilight of the forest. The skin
of the female is about the shade of that of the Southern European of
to-day; that of the male is darker. The most interesting of the three
figures is the young ape-mother, who reclines against a tree-trunk and
offers her breast to her first-born. The expression of the face is
remarkable; happiness at the possession of the child mingles with
misgiving for its future. The tear which trembles upon her cheek seems
indicative of the flood of tears which is to run down the history of her
descendants. The father has less of this feeling, and stands upright
beside his wife and child and looks down upon them with an air of pride
and paternal joy. The original painting is owned by the celebrated
Darwinian philosopher Ernest Haeckel of Jena.]

But at that time I overlooked one problem of great importance; and it is
astonishing to me, except on the principle of Columbus and his egg, how
I could have overlooked it and its solution. This problem is the
tendency in organic beings descended from the same stock to diverge in
character as they become modified. That they have diverged greatly is
obvious from the manner in which species of all kinds can be classed
under genera, genera under families, families under sub-orders, and so
forth: and I can remember the very spot in the road, whilst in my
carriage, when to my joy the solution occurred to me; and this was long
after I had come to Down. The solution, as I believe, is that the
modified offspring of all dominant and increasing forms tend to become
adapted to many and highly diversified places in the economy of nature.

Early in 1856 Lyell advised me to write out my views pretty fully, and I
began at once to do so on a scale three or four times as extensive as
that which was afterwards followed in my 'Origin of Species'; yet it was
only an abstract of the materials which I had collected, and I got
through about half the work on this scale. But my plans were overthrown,
for early in the summer of 1858 Mr. Wallace, who was then in the Malay
Archipelago, sent me an essay 'On the Tendency of Varieties to depart
Indefinitely from the Original Type'; and this essay contained exactly
the same theory as mine. Mr. Wallace expressed the wish that if I
thought well of his essay, I should send it to Lyell for perusal.

The circumstances under which I consented, at the request of Lyell and
Hooker, to allow of an abstract from my MS., together with a l