 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recorded by Annie Coleman in St. Louis, Missouri in April 2006. The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or The Preservation of Favored Races and the Struggle for Life Sixth London Edition by Charles Darwin Introduction When on board HMS Beagle as a naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the organic beings inhabiting South America and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts, as will be seen in the latter chapters of this volume, seem to throw some light on the origin of species, that mystery of mysteries as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers. On my return home, it occurred to me, in 1837, that something might perhaps be made out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it. After five years' work, I allowed myself to speculate on the subject and drew up some short notes. These I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the conclusions which then seemed to me probable. From that period to the present day, I have steadily pursued the same object. I hope that I may be excused for entering on these personal details as I give them to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision. My work is now, 1859, nearly finished, but as it will take me many more years to complete it, and as my health is far from strong, I have been urged to publish this abstract. I have more especially been induced to do this as Mr. Wallace, who is now studying the natural history of the Malay Archipelago, has arrived at almost exactly the same general conclusions that I have on the origin of species. In 1858, he sent me a memoir on this subject with a request that I would forward it to Sir Charles Lyell, who sent it to the Linnean Society, and it is published in the third volume of the Journal of That Society. Sir C. Lyell and Dr.