354 THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' [i860. 



used its abnormal tail for some special end, as to sail before 

 the wind, unlike other birds, every one would have said, 

 " What a beautiful and designed adaptation." Again, I say 

 I am, and shall ever remain, in a hopeless muddle. 



Thank you much for Bowen's 4to. review.* The coolness 

 with which he makes all animals to be destitute of reason is 

 simply absurd. It is monstrous at p. 103, that he should 

 argue against the possibility of accumulative variation, and 

 actually leave out, entirely, selection ! The chance that an 

 improved Short-horn, or improved Pouter-pigeon, should 

 be produced by accumulative variation without man's selec- 

 tion, is as almost infinity to nothing ; so with natural species 

 without natural selection. How capitally in the ' Atlantic ' you 

 show that Geology and Astronomy are, according to Bowen, 

 Metaphysics ; but he leaves out this in the 4to Memoir. 



I have not much to tell you about my Book. I have just 

 heard that Du Bois-Reymond agrees with me. The sale of my 

 book goes on well, and the multitude of reviews has not 

 stopped the sale . . . ; so I must begin at once on a new 

 corrected edition. I will send you a copy for the chance of 

 your ever re-reading ; but, good Heavens, how sick you must 

 be of it ! 



C. Darwin to T. H. Huxley. 



Down, Dec. 2nd [i860]. 



.... I have got fairly sick of hostile reviews. Neverthe- 

 less, they have been of use in showing me when to expatiate 

 a little and to introduce a few new discussions. Of coitrse 

 I will send you a copy of the new edition 



I entirely agree with you, that the difficulties on my 

 notions are terrific, yet having seen what all the Reviews have 

 said against me, I have far more confidence in the general 

 truth of the doctrine than I formerly had. Another thing 



* ( 



Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,' vol. viii. 



