ch. xiii.] REVIEWS AND CRITICISMS, 18G0. 217 



come up to London on Saturday the 14th, for Sir B. Brodie's 

 party, as I have an accumulation of things to do in London, 

 and will (if I do not hear to the contrary) call about a quar- 

 ter before ten on Sunday morning, and sit with you at break- 

 fast, but will not sit long, and so take up much of your time. 

 I must say one more word about our quasi-theological con- 

 troversy about natural selection, and let me have your opin- 

 ion when we meet in London. Do you consider that the 

 successive variations in the size of the crop of the Pouter 

 Pigeon, which man has accumulated to please his caprice, 

 have been due to " the creative and sustaining powers of 

 Brahma?" In the sense that an omnipotent and omnis- 

 cient Deity must order and know everything, this must be 

 admitted ; yet, in honest truth, I can hardly admit it. It 

 seems preposterous that a maker of a universe should care 

 about the crop of a pigeon solely to please man's silly fan- 

 cies. But if you agree with me in thinking such an inter- 

 position of the Deity uncalled for, I can see no reason what- 

 ever for believing in such interpositions in the case of nat- 

 ural beings, in which strange and admirable peculiarities 

 have been naturally selected for the creature's own benefit. 

 Imagine a Pouter in a state of nature wading into the water 

 and then, being buoyed up by its inflated crop, sailing about 

 in search of food. What admiration this would have ex- 

 cited adaptation to the laws of hydrostatic pressure, &c. &c. 

 For the life of me, I cannot see any difficulty in natural selec- 

 tion producing the most exquisite structure, if such struct- 

 ure can be arrived at by gradation, and I know from expe- 

 rience how hard it is to name any structure towards which 

 at least some gradations are not known. 



Ever yours. 



P. S. The conclusion at which I have come, as I have 

 told Asa Gray, is that such a question, as is touched on in 

 this note, is beyond the human intellect, like " predestina- 

 tion and free will," or the " origin of evil." 



C. D. to J. D. Hooker. Down [May 15th, I860]. 



. . . How paltry it is in such men as X., Y. and Co. not 

 reading your essay. It is incredibly paltry. They may all 

 attack me to their hearts' content. I am got case-hardened. 

 As for the old fogies in Cambridge,* it really signifies noth- 



* This refers to a " savage onslaught " on the Origin by Sedgwick at the 

 17 



