1S59] TIIE 'ATHENAEUM.' 229 



As advocate, he might think himself justified in giving the 

 argument only on one side. But the manner in which he 

 drags in immortality, and sets the priests at me, and leaves 

 me to their mercies, is base. He would, on no account, burn 

 me, but he will get the wood ready, and tell the black beasts 

 how to catch me. ... It would be unspeakably grand if 

 Huxley were to lecture on the subject, but I can see this is a 

 mere chance ; Faraday might think it too unorthodox. 



... I had a letter from [Huxley] with such tremendous 

 praise of my book, that modesty (as I am trying to cultivate 

 that difficult herb) prevents me sending it to you, which 

 I should have liked to have done, as he is very modest about 

 himself. 



You have cockered me up to that extent, that I now feel I 

 can face a score of savage reviewers. I suppose you are still 

 with the Lyells. Give my kindest remembrance to them. I 

 triumph to hear that he continues to approve. 



Believe me, your would-be modest friend, 



C. D. 



C. Darwin to C. Lye 11. 



Ilkley Wells, Yorkshire, 



November 23rd [1859]. 



My DEAR Lyell, You seemed to have worked admirably 

 on the species question ; there could not have been a better 

 plan than reading up on the opposite side. I rejoice pro- 

 foundly that you intend admitting the doctrine of modifica- 

 tion in your new edition ;* nothing, I am convinced, could be 

 more important for its success. I honour you most sincerely. 

 To have maintained in the position of a master, one side of a 

 question for thirty years, and then deliberately give it up, is a 



* It appears from Sir Charles lished till 1865. He was, however, 



Lyell's published letters that he in- at work on the ' Antiquity of Man' 



tended to admit the doctrine of in i860, and had already deter- 



evolution in a new edition of the mined to discuss the ' Origin ' at 



' Manual,' but this was not pub- the end of the book. 



