The letters to Mr. John Murray, the publisher, are eminently characteristic, in the expressions of regret for trouble given, and of pleasure at the work done, in the scrupulous care to prevent the publisher from feeling committed, if on further acquaintance with the manuscript he did not wish to accept it, and in the offer to contribute towards the cost of corrections.
THE “ORIGIN” PUBLISHED.
The first edition of “The Origin of Species” was published November 24th, 1859. The edition consisted of 1,250 copies, all of which were sold on the day of issue.
The full title of this volume, of which Darwin justly says (“Autobiography”), “It is no doubt the chief work of my life,” is reproduced below.
ON
THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION,
OR THE
PRESERVATION OF FAVOURED RACES IN THE STRUGGLE
FOR LIFE.
By CHARLES DARWIN, M.A.,
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL, GEOLOGICAL, LINNEAN, ETC., SOCIETIES;
AUTHOR OF “JOURNAL OF RESEARCHES DURING H.M.S. ‘BEAGLE’S’ VOYAGE
ROUND THE WORLD.”
This title is of interest, as has been pointed out by Professor E. Ray Lankester, in relation to the controversy upon the exact meaning of the word “Darwinism.” Some writers have argued that the term “Darwinism” includes the whole of the causes of evolution accepted by Darwin—the supposed inherited effects of use and disuse and the direct influence of environment, which find a subordinate place in the “Origin,” as well as natural selection, which is the real subject of the book and which is fully defined in the title. It would seem appropriate to use the term “Darwinism,” as Wallace uses it, to indicate the causes of evolution which were suggested by Darwin himself, excluding these supposed causes which had been previously brought forward by earlier writers, and especially by Lamarck. The causes of evolution proposed by Lamarck are seriously disputed, and it is possible that they may be ultimately abandoned. If so, the integrity of “Darwinism,” as interpreted by some controversialists, would be impaired; and this, it will be generally admitted, would be most unfortunate, as well as most unfair to the memory of Darwin.
CHAPTER XV.
THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES (1859).
THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.