statement that it was especially the character of the "species on Galapagos
Archipelago" which had impressed him. (Chapter II./5. See "Life and
Letters," I., page 276.) This must refer to the zoological specimens: no
doubt he was thinking of the birds, but these he had himself collected in
1835 (Chapter II./6. He wrote in his "Journal," page 394, "My attention
was first thoroughly aroused, by comparing together the numerous specimens
shot by myself and several other parties on board," etc.), and no accurate
determination of the forms was necessary to impress on him the remarkable
characteristic species of the different islands. We agree with Mr. Huxley
that 1837 is the date of the "new light which was rising in his mind."
That the dawn did not come sooner seems to us to be accounted for by the
need of time to produce so great a revolution in his conceptions. We do
not see that Mr. Huxley's supposition as to the effect of the determination
of species, etc., has much weight. Mr. Huxley quotes a letter from Darwin
to Zacharias, "But I did not become convinced that species were mutable
until, I think, two or three years [after 1837] had elapsed" (see Letter
278). This passage, which it must be remembered was written in 1877, is
all but irreconcilable with the direct evidence of the 1837 note-book. A
series of passages are quoted from it in the "Life and Letters," Volume
II., pages 5 et seq., and these it is impossible to read without feeling
that he was convinced of immutability. He had not yet attained to a clear
idea of Natural Selection, and therefore his views may not have had, even
to himself, the irresistible convincing power they afterwards gained; but
that he was, in the ordinary sense of the word, convinced of the truth of
the doctrine of evolution we cannot doubt. He thought it "almost useless"
to try to prove the truth of evolution until the cause of change was
discovered. And it is natural that in later life he should have felt that
conviction was wanting till that cause was made out. (Chapter II./7. See
"Charles Darwin, his Life told, etc." 1892, page 165.) For the purposes of
the present chapter the point is not very material. We know that in 1842