292 



THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' 



[i860. 



the subject has made ; look at the enclosed memorandum.* 



says my book will be forgotten in ten years, perhaps so ; 



but, with such a list, I feel convinced the subject will not. 

 The outsiders, as you say, are strong. 



You say that you think that Bentham is touched, "but, 

 like a wise man, holds his tongue." Perhaps you only mean 

 that he cannot decide, otherwise I should think such silence 

 the reverse of magnanimity ; for if others behaved the same 

 way, how would opinion ever progress ? It is a dereliction of 

 actual duty.f 



I am so glad to hear about Thwaites.J ... I have had an 

 astounding letter from Dr. Boott ; it might be turned into 

 ridicule against him and me, so I will not send it to any one. 

 He writes in a noble spirit of love of truth. 



I wonder what Lindley thinks ; probably too busy to read 

 or think on the question. 



I am vexed about Bentham's reticence, for it would have 

 been of real value to know what parts appeared weakest to a 

 man of his powers of observation. 



Farewell, my dear Hooker, yours affectionately, 



C. Darwin. 



P.S. Is not Harvey in the class of men who do not at all 

 care for generalities ? I remember your saying you could 



* See table of names, p. 293. 



t In a subsequent letter to Sir 

 J. D. Hooker (March 12th, i860), 

 my father wrote, " I now quite un- 

 derstand Bentham's silence." 



X Dr. G. J. K. Thwaites, who 

 was born in 181 1, established a 

 reputation in this country as an 

 expert microscopist and an acute 

 observer, working especially at 

 cryptogamic botany. On his ap- 

 pointment as Director of the 

 Botanic Gardens at Peradenyia, 

 Ceylon, Dr. Thwaites devoted him- 

 self to the flora of Ceylon. As a 



result of this he has left numerous 

 and valuable collections, a descrip- 

 tion of which he embodied in his 

 ' Enumeratio Plantarum Zeylaniae ' 

 (1864). Dr. Thwaites was a Fellow 

 of the Linnean Society, but beyond 

 the above facts, little seems to have 

 been recorded of his life. His death 

 occurred in Ceylon on September 

 nth, 1882, in his seventy-second 

 year. Athentzum, October 14th, 

 1882, p. 500. 



The letter is enthusiastically 

 laudatory, and obviously full of 

 genuine feeling. 



