RECORD: Darwin, C. R. [c. 1876]. Draft fragment of Darwin's Autobiography "I gained much by the delay". CUL-DAR53.2.140. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Kees Rookmaaker and John van Wyhe, edited by John van Wyhe 9.2009. Correction by Christine Chua 1.2022. Remaineder transcribed by John van Wyhe 6.2025. RN3
NOTE: Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin. The volume CUL-DAR53.2 contains drafts, notes & clippings for Expression.
This document is written in ink on blue paper measuring 22 x 33 cm. The lower left half is excised.
This is part of a rough draft of Darwin's Autobiography. A fair copy, also in Darwin's hand, is in CUL-DAR26. The same passage as drafted here is found on f. 96 here. It is interesting to note that when originally drafting this sentence Darwin appears to have written: "I gained much by the delay in the publishing from 1839 by what to me...I lost nothing by the delay" (emphasis added) — wording different from that in the fair copy and in the published Autobiography: "I gained much by my delay in publishing from about 1839, when the theory was clearly conceived, to 1859; & I lost nothing by it". The original wording is supportive of the conclusion that Darwin was not referring to withholding his theory has intepreted by some late 20th-century historians. See van Wyhe, Mind the gap, 2007.
140 140a
(1
(I gained much by the my my delay in the publishing from 1839, by what to me when the theory was clearly conceived, to 1859; & I lost nothing by the delay by it; Wallace's Essay for I cared very little whether men attributed most originality to me or to Mr Wallace; & his essay no doubt aided in the reception of the theory. I was forestalled in only one important point, which my vanity has always made me regret, namely the explanation of the p by means they of some glacial period of the presence of the same species of plants & of some animals on distant mountain summits & in the arctic regions. This theory pleased me so much that I had written wrote it out in extenso some years before E. Forbes published; & in [page excised]
[excised] in which we differed I think that I was the [excised]
[excised] of course, even alluded in print [illeg] to [excised]
[excised] [7 words illeg])
[excised] at my work on the Origin,
[excised] gave me so much satisfaction, work on the embryo as I later [excised]
[excised] the wide difference between the embryo & to [excised]
[excised] any class, & of the resemblance of the [excised]
[excised] class. No notice of this point was [excised]
[excised] reviews of the Origin & I remember nothing [illeg] & probably of [illeg]
[The lower left corner of the page is excised]
140v
[Draft of Cross fertilisation, pp. 19-20, fair copy.]
Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
File last updated 16 June, 2025