174 THE WRITING OF THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' [1859.. 



up to their full number again. Your argument would, I think, 

 apply to the aborigines as well as to the feral. 



An animal or plant which becomes feral in one small ter- 

 ritory might be destroyed by climate, but I can hardly 

 believe so, when once feral over several large territories. 

 Again, I feel inclined to swear at climate : do not think me 

 impudent for attacking you about climate. You say you 

 doubt whether man could have existed under the Eocene 

 climate, but man can now withstand the climate of Esqui- 

 maux-land and West Equatorial Africa; and surely you do 

 not think the Eocene climate differed from the present 

 throughout all Europe, as much as the Arctic regions differ 

 from Equatorial Africa ? 



With respect to organisms being created on the American 

 type in America, it might, I think, be said that they were 

 so created to prevent them being too well created, so as 

 to beat the aborigines ; but this seems to me, somehow, a 

 monstrous doctrine. 



I have reflected a good deal on what you say on the neces- 

 sity of continued intervention of creative power. I cannot see 

 this necessity ; and its admission, I think, would make the 

 theory of Natural Selection valueless. Grant a simple Arche- 

 typal creature, like the Mud-fish or Lepidosiren, with the five 

 senses and some vestige of mind, and I believe natural selection 

 will account for the production of every vertebrate animal. 



Farewell ; forgive me for indulging in this prose, and 

 believe me, with cordial thanks, 



Your ever attached disciple, 



C. Darwin. 



P.S. When, and if, you reread, I supplicate you to write on 

 the margin the word " expand," when too condensed, or " not 

 clear," or " ? ". Such marks would cost you little trouble, and 

 I could copy them and reflect on them, and their value 

 would be infinite to me. 



