ch. xiv.] 18611871. 265 



at the same time to express my opinion that you have done 

 the subject a real service by the highly original, striking, 

 and condensed manner with which you have put the case. 

 I am actually weary of telling people that I do not pretend 

 to adduce direct evidence of one species changing into an- 

 other, but that I believe that this view in the main is cor- 

 rect, because so many phenomena can be thus grouped to- 

 gether and explained. 



But it is generally of no use, I cannot make persons see 

 this. I generally throw in their teeth the universally ad- 

 mitted theory of the undulations of light neither the un- 

 dulations, nor the very existence of ether being proved yet 

 admitted because the views explain so much. You are one 

 of the very few who have seen this, and have now put it 

 most forcibly and clearly. I am much pleased to see how 

 carefully you have read my book, and what is far more im- 

 portant, reflected on so many points with an independent 

 spirit. As I am deeply interested in the subject (and I 

 hope not exclusively under a personal point of view) I 

 could not resist venturing to thank you for the right good 

 service which you have done. Pray believe me, dear sir, 



Yours faithfully and obliged. 



It was a still more hopeful sign that work of the first 

 rank in value, conceived on evolutionary principles, began 

 to be published. 



My father .expressed this idea in a letter to the late Mr. 

 Bates.* 



" Under a general point of view, I am quite convinced 

 (Hooker and Huxley took the same view some months ago) 

 that a philosophic view of nature can solely be driven 

 into naturalists by treating special subjects as you have 

 done." 



This refers to Mr. Bates' celebrated paper on mimicry, 

 with which the following letter deals : 



*Mr. Bates is perhaps most widely known through his delightful The 

 Naturalist on the Amazons. It was with regard to this book that my father 

 wrote (April 1863) to the author: " I have finished vol. i. My criticisms may 

 be condensed into a single sentence, namely, that it is the best work of Nat- 

 ural History Travels ever published in England. Your style seems to me ad- 

 mirable. Nothing can be better than the discussion on the struggle for exist- 

 ence, and nothing better than the description of the Forest scenery. It is a 

 grand book, and whether or not it sells quickly, it will last. You have spoken 

 out boldly on Species ; and boldness on the subject seems to get rarer and 

 rarer. How beautifully illustrated it is." 



