{i}

THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE
ORIGIN OF SPECIES

{ii}

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
London: FETTER LANE, E.C.
C. F. CLAY, Manager

Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET
ALSO
London: H. K. LEWIS, 136, GOWER STREET, W.C.

Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO.

Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS

New York: G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND Co., Ltd.

All rights reserved

{iii}

From a photograph by Maull & Fox in 1854

{iv}

THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE
ORIGIN OF SPECIES
TWO ESSAYS
WRITTEN IN 1842 AND 1844
by
CHARLES DARWIN

Edited by his son
FRANCIS DARWIN
Honorary Fellow of Christ's College

Cambridge:
at the University Press
1909

{v}

Astronomers might formerly have said that God ordered each planet tomove in its particular destiny. In same manner God orders each animalcreated with certain form in certain country. But how much more simpleand sublime power,—let attraction act according to certain law, suchare inevitable consequences,—let animal«s» be created, then by thefixed laws of generation, such will be their successors.

From Darwin’s Note Book, 1837, p. 101.

{vi}

TO THE MASTER AND FELLOWS
OF CHRIST’S COLLEGE, THIS
BOOK IS DEDICATED BY THE
EDITOR IN TOKEN OF RESPECT
AND GRATITUDE

{vii}

CONTENTS

ESSAY OF 1842

• PAGES
  
• Introduction xi

PART I

• § i. On variation under domestication, and on the principles ofselection 1
• § ii. On variation in a state of nature and on the natural means ofselection 4
• § iii. On variation in instincts and other mental attributes 17

PART II

• §§ iv. and v. On the evidence from Geology. (The reasons forcombining the two sections are given in the Introduction) ...