3H 



THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' 



[i860. 



I feared it was bigotry, and I am glad to see that he goes a 

 little way {very much further than I supposed) with us. . . . 



I was not sorry for a natural opportunity of writing to 

 Harvey, just to show that I was not piqued at his turning 

 me and my book into ridicule,* not that I think it was a pro- 

 ceeding which I deserved, or worthy of him. It delights me 

 that you are interested in watching the progress of opinion 

 on the change of Species ; I feared that you were weary of 

 the subject ; and therefore did not send A. Gray's letters. 

 The battle rages furiously in the United States. Gray 

 says he was preparing a speech, which would take 1 \ hours to 

 deliver, and which he " fondly hoped would be a stunner." 

 He is fighting splendidly, and there seem to have been 

 many discussions with Agassiz and others at the meetings. 

 Agassiz pities me much at being so deluded. As for the 

 progress of opinion, I clearly see that it will be excessively 

 slow, almost as slow as the change of species. ... I am 

 getting wearied at the storm of hostile reviews and hardly any 

 useful. . . . 



C. Darwin to C. Lyell. 



Down, Friday night [June 1st, i860]. 



. . . Have you seen Hopkins f in the new 'Fraser'? the 

 public will, I should think, find it heavy. He will be dead 



* A " serio-comic squib," read 

 before the ' Dublin University 

 Zoological and Botanical Associa- 

 tion,' Feb. 17, i860, and privately 

 printed. My father's presentation 

 copy is inscribed, " With the writer's 

 repentance, Oct. i860." 



t William Hopkins died in 1866, 

 " in his seventy-third year." He 

 began life with a farm in Suffolk, 

 but ultimately entered, compara- 

 tively late in life, at Peterhouse, 

 Cambridge ; he took his degree in 



1827, and afterwards became an 

 Esquire Bedell of the University. 

 He was chiefly known as a mathe- 

 matical " coach," and was eminently 

 successful in the manufacture of 

 Senior Wranglers. Nevertheless 

 Mr. Stephen says (' Life of Fawcett,' 

 p. 26) that he " was conspicuous 

 for inculcating " a " liberal view of 

 the studies of the place. He en- 

 deavoured to stimulate a philoso- 

 phical interest in the mathematical, 

 sciences, instead of simply rousing 



