Editing Development of Darwin's theory (section)

===''Vestiges'' published===
In October 1844 Transmutation became a middle class talking point with the anonymous publication of ''[[Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation]]'' by [[Robert Chambers (journalist)|Robert Chambers]] presenting [[Lamarckism|Lamarckian]] views. It brought the notion of transmutation out into the public arena and was a sensation, quickly becoming a best-seller in fashionable society circles and going into new editions. Darwin read it in November,<ref name=readinglist>[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=CUL-DAR119.-&pageseq=70 15v–16v]</ref> and when questioned by Hooker in January he admired its prose, but wrote that the "geology strikes me as bad, & his zoology far worse". The book was liked by many [[Religious Society of Friends|Quaker]]s and [[Unitarianism|Unitarians]]. Darwin's friend the Unitarian physiologist [[William Benjamin Carpenter|William Carpenter]] called it "a very beautiful and a very interesting book", and helped Chambers with correcting later editions. Critics thanked God that the author began "in ignorance and presumption", for the revised versions "would have been much more dangerous". ''Vestiges'' paved the way for discussion, but emphasised the need for secure mastery of awkward facts.

Hooker became Darwin's mainstay in the search to find and explain anomalous facts, though Darwin was greatly disappointed in February 1845 when Hooker was invited to teach botany at Edinburgh. Others helping included [[Francis Beaufort|Captain Beaufort]] of the [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]] who invited Darwin to list any facts he wanted checking, for investigation by ship's surgeons (naturalists) when their ship was in the appropriate part of the world. In March Darwin followed his father's investment advice and became owner of a farmhouse and estate in [[Lincolnshire]], where the Reverend [[Samuel Wilberforce]] advised local squires to take education in hand lest the countryfolk learn "a smattering of science" and forget their God-given duties.

The publisher [[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]] made an offer of payment for a revised second edition of ''Journal and Remarks'', diverting Darwin's attention from ''South America''. On 25 April Darwin began extensive revisions incorporating his latest information and interpretations, including several hints about his species speculation. He now saw the [[Galápagos Islands|Galápagos Archipelago]] as "a little world within itself, or rather a satellite attached to America, whence it has derived a few stray colonists," where we were "astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and at their confined range", and "seem to be brought somewhat near to that great fact – that mystery of mysteries – the first appearance of new beings on this earth." On 5 August Darwin began reading Lyell's ''Travels in North America'', and was horrified that it saw no harm in slavery. He added two new paragraphs to his ''Journal'', cataloguing atrocities after stating "I thank God, I shall never again visit a slave-country", and finished his revisions on 26 August.<ref name=readinglist/><ref>{{harvnb|Darwin|2006|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=side&itemID=CUL-DAR158.1–76&pageseq=44 23 verso: 1845]}}<br>{{harvnb|Darwin|1845|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F14&pageseq=390 377–378]}}; {{harvnb|Darwin|1909|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F14&pageseq=512 499–500]}}</ref>

[[Anglican]] clergymen / naturalists had been slow to respond to ''Vestiges'', not wanting to give its vile ideas of transmutation publicity, but it sold increasing numbers to polite society. In the July ''[[Edinburgh Review]]'' a lengthy and scathing attack by [[Adam Sedgwick]], who had taught Darwin geology at university, predicted "ruin and confusion in such a creed" which if taken up by the populace would "undermine the whole moral and social fabric" bringing "discord and deadly mischief in its train." On 8 October Darwin wrote telling Lyell that the review was "far from popular with non-scientific readers. I think some few passages savour of the dogmatism of the pulpit, rather than of the philosophy of the Professor chair". Nevertheless, it was "a grand piece of argument against mutability of species; & I read it with fear & trembling, but was well pleased to find, that I had not overlooked any of the arguments, though I had put them to myself as feebly as milk & water."<ref name=letter919>{{Citation | title = Letter 919 – Darwin, C. R. to Lyell, Charles, 8 Oct (1845) | url = http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-919.html | publisher = Darwin Correspondence Project | access-date = 9 October 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080605141658/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-919.html | archive-date = 5 June 2008 | url-status = dead }}</ref>
[[File:Darwins Thinking Path.JPG|thumb|right|In 1846 Darwin rented land from his neighbour [[Sir John Lubbock, 3rd Baronet|John Lubbock]] to plant woodland and lay out the "sandwalk" at [[Down House]] which became his usual "Thinking Path".<ref>{{harvnb|Freeman|1978|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=A27&pageseq=132 125], [http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=A27&pageseq=258 251]}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Darwin|1887|pp=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1452.1&pageseq=132 114–116]}}</ref> ]]
In correspondence Darwin continued to discuss his species work with Hooker, and he took it personally when Hooker remarked of another naturalist "that no one has hardly a right to examine the question of species who has not minutely described many." However, even [[Richard Owen]] who was opposed to any mutability in species had told him it was "a very fair subject" with a mass of facts to be investigated, "& though I shall get more kicks than half-pennies, I will, life serving, attempt my work."<ref>{{Citation | title = Letter 915 – Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D., (10 Sept 1845) | url = http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-915.html | archive-url = https://archive.today/20120803035418/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-915.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = 3 August 2012 | publisher = Darwin Correspondence Project | access-date = 9 October 2009 }}</ref> Early in November Darwin, hinting that "geographical distrib: will be the key which will unlock the mystery of species", invited Hooker to "look over a rough sketch (well copied) on this subject" while fearing this was "too impudent a request".<ref>{{Citation | title = Letter 924 – Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D., (5 or 12 Nov 1845) | url = http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-924.html | archive-url = https://archive.today/20120729090716/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-924.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = 29 July 2012 | publisher = Darwin Correspondence Project | access-date = 9 October 2009 }}</ref>

Darwin's researches led to a meeting on 23 November with [[Charles James Fox Bunbury]], in which he discussed the geographical distribution of plants and animals, particularly in the Galapagos islands where they strikingly showed "a South American character as it were stamped on them all, while nearly all the species are peculiar." As Bunbury recalled, "He avowed himself to some extent a believer in the transmutation of species, though not, he said, exactly according to the doctrine either of Lamarck or of the ''Vestiges''. But he admitted that all the leading botanists and zoologists, of this country at least, are on the other side."<ref>{{Citation | title = Letter 901 – Lyell, Charles to Darwin, C. R., (after 2 Aug 1845) | url = http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-901.html | publisher = Darwin Correspondence Project | access-date = 9 October 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070901013751/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-901.html | archive-date = 1 September 2007 | url-status = dead }}<br>Bunbury, Charles James Fox (1906) [http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=A716&pageseq=1 Recollections of Darwin.] The life of Sir Charles J. F. Bunbury, Bart. Edited by his sister-in-law Mrs Henry Lyell [Katharine Murray Lyell]; with an introductory note by Sir Joseph Hooker. 2 vols. London: John Murray.</ref> Darwin was familiarising the "most rising naturalists" with the idea, and on 6 December enjoyed having Hooker, [[Edward Forbes]], [[Hugh Falconer]], and [[George Robert Waterhouse]] visit Down for dinner and "raging discussions".<ref>{{Citation | title = Letter 930 – Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D., (25 Nov 1845) | url = http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-930.html | publisher = Darwin Correspondence Project | access-date = 9 October 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070901161518/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-930.html | archive-date = 1 September 2007 | url-status = dead }}<br>{{Citation | title = Letter 935 – Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D., (10 Dec 1845) | url = http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-935.html | publisher = Darwin Correspondence Project | access-date = 9 October 2009 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In the following year potato blight brought famine which impinged on the Darwins' servants and workmen, and led to overthrow of the [[Corn Laws]]. Darwin welcomed this, but as a landowner now found that it affected his income from rent and he wrote to his agent that "Although I am on principle a free-trader, of course I am not willing to make a larger reduction than necessary to retain a good tenant." Despite his own illness recurring, Darwin pressed on with ''South America'', having to jointly subsidise it with the publisher when the Treasury grant ran out, and it was completed by October 1846.