ing of the passages
marked in the books and copied out of scraps of paper, then let my
sketch be published as it is, stating that it was done several years
ago{34}, and from memory without consulting any works, and with no
intention of publication in its present form."

{34} The words "several years ago, and" seem to have been added at
a later date.

The idea that the sketch of 1844 might remain, in the event of his
death, as the only record of his work, seems to have been long in his
mind, for in August, 1854, when he had finished with the Cirripedes, and
was thinking of beginning his "species work," he added on the back of
the above letter, "Hooker by far best man to edit my species volume.
August 1854."

I have called attention in footnotes to many points in which the
_Origin_ agrees with the _Foundations_. One of the most interesting is
the final sentence, practically the same in the Essays of 1842 and 1844,
and almost identical with the concluding words of the _Origin_. I have
elsewhere pointed out{35} that the ancestry of this eloquent passage may
be traced one stage further back,--to the Note Book of 1837. I have
given this sentence as an appropriate motto for the _Foundations_ in its
character of a study of general laws. It will be remembered that a
corresponding motto from Whewell's _Bridgewater Treatise_ is printed
opposite the title-page of the _Origin of Species_.

{35} _Life and Letters_, ii. p. 9.

Mr Huxley who, about the year 1887, read the Essay of 1844, remarked
that "much more weight is attached to the influence of external
conditions in producing variation and to the inheritance of acquired
habits than in the _Origin_." In the _Foundations_ the effect of
conditions is frequently mentioned, and Darwin seems to have had
constantly in mind the need of referring each variation to a cause. But
I gain the impression that the slighter prominence given to this view in
the _Origin_ was not due to change of opinion, but rather because he had
gradually come to take this view for granted; so that in the scheme of
that book, it was overshadowed by considerations which then seemed to
him more pressing. With regard to the inheritance of acquired characters
I am not inclined to agree with Huxley. It is certain that the
_Foundations_ contains strong recognition of the importance of germinal
variation, that is of external conditions acting indirectly through the
"reproductive functions." He eviden