302 



THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' 



[i860.. 



would read the enclosed.* If you think it proper that I 

 should send it (and of this there can hardly be any question), 

 and if you think it full and ample enough, please alter the 

 date to the day on which you post it, and let that be soon. 

 The case in the Gardeners' Chronicle seems a little stronger 

 than in Mr. Matthew's book, for the passages are therein 

 scattered in three places ; but it would be mere hair-splitting 

 to notice that. If you object to my letter, please return it ; 

 but I do not expect that you, will, but I thought that you 

 would not object to run your eye over it. My dear Hooker, 

 it is a great thing for me to have so good, true, and old a 

 friend as you. I owe much for science to my friends. 



Many thanks for Huxley's lecture. The latter part seemed; 

 to be grandly eloquent. 



... I have gone over [the ' Edinburgh '] review again, and 

 compared passages, and I am astonished at the misrepre- 

 sentations. But I am glad I resolved not to answer. Perhaps 

 it is selfish, but to answer and think more on the subject is- 

 too unpleasant. I am so sorry that Huxley by my means 

 has been thus atrociously attacked. I do not suppose you 

 much care about the gratuitous attack on you. 



* My father wrote (Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, i860, p. 362, April 21st) : 

 " I have been much interested by 

 Mr. Patrick Matthew's communi- 

 cation in the number of your paper 

 dated April 7th. I freely acknow- 

 ledge that Mr. Matthew has anti- 

 cipated by many years the ex- 

 planation which I have offered of 

 the origin of species, under the 

 name of natural selection. I think 

 that no one will feel surprised 

 that neither I, nor apparently any 

 other naturalist, had heard of Mr. 

 Matthew's views, considering how 

 briefly they are given, and that 

 they appeared in the appendix to 

 a work on Naval Timber and 



Arboriculture. I can do no more 

 than offer my apologies to Mr. 

 Matthew for my entire ignorance 

 of his publication. If another edi- 

 tion of my work is called for, I will 

 insert to the foregoing effect." In 

 spite of my father's recognition of 

 his claims, Mr. Matthew remained 

 unsatisfied, and complained that 

 an article in the ' Saturday Analyst 

 and Leader ' was " scarcely fair in 

 alluding to Mr. Darwin as the 

 parent of the origin of species, 

 seeing that I published the whole 

 that Mr. Darwin attempts to prove, 

 more than twenty-nine years ago." 

 Saturday Analyst and Leader y 

 Nov. 24, i860. 



