Evolution is the development of new
organisms through heredity, variation, and adaptation. Darwinism, or the
doctrine of natural selection, as best defined in these pages by Darwin
himself, is seen to involve quite different factors from those of
evolution as thus restricted. For candor and childlike simplicity, the
writings of Darwin are especially noteworthy among the modest utterances
of great men, and nowhere are these qualities more strikingly revealed
than in the following account of the production of his principal work.
From September, 1854, I devoted my whole time to arranging my huge pile
of notes, to observing, and to experimenting in relation to the
transmutation of species. During the voyage of the Beagle I had been
deeply impressed by discovering in the pampean formation great fossil
animals covered with armor like that on the existing armadillos;
secondly, by the manner in which closely allied animals replace one
another in proceeding southward over the continent; and thirdly, by the
South American character of most of the productions of the Galapagos
Archipelago, and more especially by the manner in which they differ
slightly on each island of the group, none of the islands appearing to
be very ancient, in a geological sense.
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