en. xi.J 1858-1859. 213 



do my best in proofs. You are a good man to take the 

 trouble to write about it. 



AVith respect to our mutual muddle,* I never for a mo- 

 ment thought we could not make our ideas clear to each 

 other by talk, or if either of us had time to write in extenso. 



I imagine from some expressions (but if you ask me 

 what, I could not answer) that you look at variability as 

 some necessary contingency with organisms, and further that 

 there is some necessary tendency in the variability to go on 

 diverging in character or degree. If you do, I do not 

 agree. " Reversion " again (a form of inheritance), I look 

 at as in no way directly connected with Variation, though 

 of course inheritance is of fundamental importance to us, 

 for if a variation be not inherited, it is of no signification to 

 us. It was on such points as these / fancied that we per- 

 haps started differently. 



I fear that my book will not deserve at all the pleasant 

 things you say about it, and Good Lord, how I do long to 

 have done with it ! 



Since the above was written, I have received and have 

 been much interested by A. Gray. I am delighted at his 

 note about my and Wallace's paper. He will go round, for 

 it is futile to give up very many species, and stop at an 

 arbitrary line at others. It is what my father called Uni- 

 tarianism, " a feather-bed to catch a falling Christian. . . ." 



C. D. to J. Murray. Down, June 14th [1859]. 



My dear Sir, The diagram will do very well, and I 

 will send it shortly to Mr. West to have a few trifling cor- 

 rections made. 



I get on very slowly with proofs. I remember writing 

 to you that I thought there would be not much correction. 

 I honestly wrote what I thought, but was most grievously 

 mistaken. I find the style incredibly bad, and most diffi- 

 cult to make clear and smooth. I am extremely sorry to 

 say, on account of expense, and loss of time for me, that 

 the corrections are very heavy, as heavy as possible. But 

 from casual glances, I still hope that later chapters are not 

 so badly written. How I could have written so badly is 



* " When I go over the chapter I will see what I can do, hut I hardly 

 know how I am obscure, and I think we are somehow in a mutual muddle 

 with respect to each other, from starting from some fundamentally different 

 notions." Letter of May 6th, 1859. 



