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408 those views, or to combat the principal objections which the scientific world entertained against them.

No decided step in this direction was made until the publication in 1858 of two papers, one by Mr. Darwin and another by Mr. Wallace, followed in 1859 by Mr. Darwin's celebrated work on 'The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection; or, the Preservation of favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.' The author of this treatise had for twenty previous years strongly inclined to believe that variation and the ordinary laws of reproduction were among the secondary causes always employed by the Author of nature, in the introduction from time to time of new species into the world, and he had devoted himself patiently to the collecting of facts, and making of experiments in zoology and botany, with a view of testing the soundness of the theory of transmutation. Part of the MS. of his projected work was read to Dr. Hooker as early as 1844, and some of the principal results were communicated to me on several occasions. Dr. Hooker and I had repeatedly urged him to publish without delay, but in vain, as he was always unwilling to interrupt the course of his investigations; until at length Mr. Alfred R. Wallace, who had been engaged for years in collecting and studying the animals of the East Indian archipelago, thought out, independently for himself, one of the most novel and important of Mr. Darwin's theories. This he embodied in an essay 'On the Tendency of Varieties to depart indefinitely from the original Type.' It was written at Ternate, in February 1858, and sent to Mr. Darwin, with a request that it might be shown to me if thought sufficiently novel and interesting. Dr. Hooker and I were of opinion that it should be immediately printed, and we succeeded in persuading Mr. Darwin to allow one of the MS. chapters of his 'Origin of Species,' entitled 'On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties, and on the Perpetuation of Species and