ch. xiv.] 18611871. 273 



To this mv father replied as follows in the Athenceum of 

 May 9th, 1863 : 



Down, May 5 [1863]. 



I hope that you will grant me space to own that your 

 reviewer is quite correct when he states that any theory of 

 descent will connect, " by an intelligible thread of reason- 

 ing," the several generalizations before specified. I ought 

 to have made this admission expressly ; with the reservation, 

 however, that, as far as I can judge, no theory so well ex- 

 plains or connects these several generalizations (more espe- 

 cially the formation of domestic races in comparison with 

 natural species, the principles of classification, embryonic 

 resemblance, &c.) as the theory, or hypothesis, or guess, if 

 the reviewer so likes to call it, of Natural Selection. Nor 

 has any other satisfactory explanation been ever offered of 

 the almost perfect adaptation of all organic beings to each 

 other, and to their physical conditions of life. Whether the 

 naturalist believes in the views given by Lamarck, by Geofi> 

 roy St. Hilaire, by the author of the Vestiges, by Mr. Wal- 

 lace and myself, or in any other such view, signifies ex- 

 tremely little in comparison with the admission that species 

 have descended from other species, and have not been cre- 

 ated immutable ; for he who admits this as a great truth 

 has a wide field opened to him for further inquiry. I be- 

 lieve, however, from what I see of the progress of opinion 

 on the Continent, and in this country, that the theory 

 of Natural Selection will ultimately be adopted, with, no 

 doubt, many subordinate modifications and improvements. 



Chakles Darwin. 



In the following, he refers to the above letter to the 

 AtlxencBum : 



C. D. to J. D. Hooker. Saturday [May 11, 1863]. 



My dear Hooker, You give good advice about not 

 writing in newspapers; I have been gnashing my teeth 



at my own folly; and this not caused by 's "sneers, 



which were so good that I almost enjoyed them. I have 

 written once again to own to a certain extent of truth 

 in what he says, and then if I am ever such a fool again, 

 have no mercy on me. I have read the squib in Public 

 Opinion ; * it is capital ; if there is more, and you have a 



* Public Opinion, April 23, 1863. A lively account of a police case, in 



