ch. xii.] OCTOBER 1859, TO DECEMBER 1859. 231 



He wants a new edition instantly, and this utterly con- 

 founds me. Now, under water-cure, with all nervous power 

 directed to the skin, I cannot possibly do head-work, and I 

 must make only actually necessary corrections. But I 

 will, as far as I can without my manuscript, take advan- 

 tage of your suggestions : I must not attempt much. Will 

 you send me one line to say whether I must strike out 

 about the secondary whale,* it goes to my heart. About 

 the rattle-snake, look to my Journal, under Trigonoce- 

 phalus, and you will see the probable origin of the rat- 

 tle, and generally in transitions it is the premier pas qui 

 coute." 



Here follows a hint of the coming storm (from a letter 

 to Lyell, Dec. 2) : 



" Do what I could, I fear I shall be greatly abused. In 

 answer to Sedgwick's remark that my book would be ' mis- 

 chievous,' I asked him whether truth can be known except 

 by being victorious over all attacks. But it is no use. 

 H. C. Watson tells me that one zoologist says he will read 

 my book, ' but I will never believe it.' What a spirit to 

 read any book in ! Crawford f writes to me that his notice 

 will be hostile, but that c he will not calumniate the author.' 

 He says he has read my book, ' at least such parts as he 

 could understand.' J He sent me some notes and sugges- 

 tions (quite unimportant), and they show me that I have 

 unavoidably done harm to the subject, by publishing an ab- 

 stract. ... I have had several notes from , very civil 



and less decided. Says he shall not pronounce against me 

 without much reflection, perhaps will say nothing on the 

 subject. X. says he will go to that part of hell, which 

 Dante tells us is appointed for those who are neither on 

 God's side nor on that of the devil." 



* The passage was omitted in the second edition. 



+ John Crawford, orientalist, ethnologist, &c., b. 1783, d. 1S6S. The review 

 appeared in the Examiner, and, though hostile, is free from bigotry, as the 

 following citation will show: "We cannot help saying that piety must be 

 fastidious indeed that objects to a theory the tendency of which is to show 

 that all organic beings, man included, are in a perpetual progress of ameliora- 

 tion and that is expounded in the reverential language which we have 

 quoted." 



X A letter of Dec. 14, gives a good example of the manner in which some 

 naturalists received and understood it. " Old J. E. Gray of the British Mu- 

 seum attacked me in fine style : ; You have just reproduced Lamarck's doc- 

 trine, and nothing else, and here Lyell and others have been attacking him 

 for twenty years, and because you (with a sneer and laugh) say the very same 

 thing, they are all coming round ; it is the most ridiculous inconsistency, &c. 

 &c.' " 



16 



