230 PUBLICATION OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, [ch. xii. 



(which no mortal can prove), final cause would stand good 

 as the directing cause under which the successive genera- 

 tions acted and gradually improved. Passages in your 

 book, like that to which I have alluded (and there are 

 others almost as bad), greatly shocked my moral taste. I 

 think, in speculating on organic descent, you over-state the 

 evidence of geology ; and that you tinder-state it while you 

 are talking of the broken links of your natural pedigree : 

 but my paper is nearly done, and I must go to my lecture- 

 room. Lastly, then, I greatly disliked the concluding 

 chapter not as a summary, for in that light it appears 

 good but I dislike it from the tone of triumph and confi- 

 dence in which you appeal to the rising generation (in a tone 

 I condemned in the author of the Vestiges) and prophesy of 

 things not yet in the womb of time, nor (if we are to trust 

 the accumulated experience of human sense and the infer- 

 ences of its logic) ever likely to be found anywhere but in 

 the fertile womb of man's imagination. And now to say a 

 word about a son of a monkey and an old friend of yours : 

 I am better, far better, than I was last year. I have been 

 lecturing three days a week (formerly I gave six a week) 

 without much fatigue, but I find by the loss of activity and 

 memory, and of all productive powers, that my bodily frame 

 is sinking slowly towards the earth. But I have visions of 

 the future. They are as much a part of myself as my 

 stomach and my heart, and these visions are to have their 

 antitype in solid fruition of what is best and greatest. But 

 on one condition only that I humbly accept God's revela- 

 tion of Himself both in His works and in His word, and do 

 my best to act in conformity with that knowledge which 

 He only can give me, and He only can sustain me in doing. 

 If you and I do all this, we shall meet in heaven. 



I have written in a hurry, and in a spirit of brotherly 

 love, therefore forgive any sentence you happen to dislike ; 

 and believe me, spite of any disagreement in some points 

 of the deepest moral interest, your true-hearted old friend, 



A. Sedgwick. 



The following extract from a note to Lyell (Nov. 24) 

 gives an idea of the conditions under which the second 

 edition was prepared : " This morning I heard from Murray 

 that he sold the whole edition * the first day to the trade. 



* First edition, 1250 copies. 



