264 



THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' 



[i860. 



open to every one to believe that man appeared by a 

 separate miracle, though I do not myself see the necessity or 

 probability. 



Pray accept my sincere thanks for your kind note. Your 

 going some way with me gives me great confidence that I am 

 not very wrong. For a very long time I halted half-way ; but 

 I do not believe that any enquiring mind will rest half-way. 

 People will have to reject all or admit all ; by all, I mean 

 only the members of each great kingdom. 



My dear Jenyns, yours most sincerely, 



C. Darwin. 



* 



C. Darwin to C. Lyell. 



Down, January 10th [i860]. 



... It is perfectly true that I owe nearly all the corrections 

 to you, and several verbal ones to you and others ; I am 

 heartily glad you approve of them, as yet only two things 

 have annoyed me ; those confounded millions f of years (not 

 that I think it is probably wrong), and my not having (by 

 inadvertence) mentioned Wallace towards the close of the 

 book in the summary, not that any one has noticed this to me. 

 I have now put in Wallace's name at p. 484 in a conspicuous 

 place. I cannot refer you to tables of mortality of children, 

 &c. &c. I have notes somewhere, but I have not the least 

 idea where to hunt, and my notes would now be old. I shall 

 be truly glad to read carefully any MS. on man, and give my 

 opinion. You used to caution me to be cautious about man. 



* The second edition of 3000 

 copies of the ' Origin ' was pub- 

 lished on January 7th. 



f This refers to the passage in 

 the ' Origin of Species ' (2nd edit. 

 p. 285), in which the lapse of time 

 implied by the denudation of the 

 Weald is discussed. The discus- 

 sion closes with the sentence : " So 



that it is not improbable that a 

 longer period than 300 million 

 years has elapsed since the latter 

 part of the Secondary period." 

 This passage is omitted in the later 

 editions of the ' Origin,' against the 

 advice of some of his friends, as 

 appears from the pencil notes in 

 my father's copy of the 2nd edition. 



