i860.] design. 353 



He set to work, and, by Jove, he has found them ! * so that 

 some of the difficulty is removed ; and is it not satisfactory 

 that my hypothetical notions should have led to pretty dis- 

 coveries ? McDonnell seems very cautious ; he says, years 

 must pass before he will venture to call himself a believer in 

 my doctrine, but that on the subjects which he knows well, 

 viz. Morphology and Embryology, my views accord well, and 

 throw light on the whole subject. 



C. Darwin to Asa Gray. 



Down, November 26th, i860. 



My DEAR GRAY, I have to thank you for two letters. The 

 latter with corrections, written before you received my letter 

 asking for an American reprint, and saying that it was 

 hopeless to print your reviews as a pamphlet, owing to the 

 impossibility of getting pamphlets known. I am very glad 

 to say that the August or second ' Atlantic ' article has been 

 reprinted in the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History ' ; 

 but I have not yet seen it there. Yesterday I read over with 

 care the third article ; and it seems to me, as before, admi- 

 rable. But I grieve to say that I cannot honestly go as far 

 as you do about Design. I am conscious that I am in an 

 utterly hopeless muddle. I cannot think that the world, as 

 we see it, is the result of chance ; and yet I cannot look at 

 each separate thing as the result of Design. To take a 

 crucial example, you lead me to infer (p. 414) that you believe 

 " that variation has been led along certain beneficial lines." I 

 cannot believe this ; and I think you would have to believe, 

 that the tail of the Fantail was led to vary in the number 

 and direction of its feathers in order to gratify the caprice of 

 a few men. Yet if the Fantail had been a wild bird, and had 



* ' On an organ in the Skate, pedo,' by R. McDonnell, ' Nat. 

 which appears to be the homologue Hist Review,' 1861, p. 57. 

 of the electrical organ of the Tor- 



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