46 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [ch. n. 



was read by Hooker some years before E. Forbes published 

 his celebrated memoir * on the subject. In the very few 

 points in which we differed, I still think that I was in the 

 right. I have never, of course, alluded in print to my hav- 

 ing independently worked out this view. 



Hardly any point gave me so much satisfaction when I 

 was at work on the Origin, as the explanation of the wide 

 difference in many classes between the embryo and the 

 adult animal, and of the close resemblance of the embryos 

 within the same class. No notice of this point was taken, 

 as far as I remember, in the early reviews of the Origin, 

 and I recollect expressing my surprise on this head in a let- 

 ter to Asa Gray. Within late years several reviewers have 

 given the whole credit to Fritz Muller and Hiickel, who 

 undoubtedly have worked it out much more fully, and in 

 some respects more correctly than I did. I had materials 

 for a whole chapter on the subject, and I ought to have 

 made the discussion longer ; for it is clear that I failed to 

 impress my readers ; and he who succeeds in doing so de- 

 serves, in my opinion, all the credit. 



This leads me to remark that I have almost always been 

 treated honestly by my reviewers, passing over those with- 

 out scientific knowledge as not worthy of notice. My views 

 have often been grossly misrepresented, bitterly opposed 

 and ridiculed, but this has been generally done, as I be- 

 lieve, in good faith. On the whole I do not doubt that my 

 works have been over and over again greatly overpraised. I 

 rejoice that I have avoided controversies, and this I owe to 

 Lyell, who many years ago, in reference to my geological 

 works, strongly advised me never to get entangled in a con- 

 troversy, as it rarely did any good and caused a miserable 

 loss of time and temper. 



Whenever I have found out that I have blundered, or that 

 my work has been imperfect, and when I have been con- 

 temptuously criticised, and even when I have been over- 

 praised, so that I have felt mortified, it has been my greatest 

 comfort to say hundreds of times to myself that " I have 

 worked as hard and as well as I could, and no man can do 

 more than this." I remember when in Good Success Bay, 

 in Tierra del Fuego, thinking (and I believe that I wrote 

 home to the effect) that I could not employ my life better 

 than in adding a little to Natural Science. This I have 



Geolog. Survey Mem., 1846. 



