280 THE SPREAD OF EVOLUTION. [ch. xir. 



I place here an extract from a letter of later date (Nov. 

 1868), which refers to one of Haeckel's later works.* 



" Your chapters on the affinities and genealogy of the 

 animal kingdom strike me as admirable and full of original 

 thought. Your boldness, however, sometimes makes me 

 tremble, but as Huxley remarked, some one must be bold 

 enough to make a beginning in drawing up tables of descent. 

 Although you fully admit the imperfection of the geological 

 record, yet Huxley agreed with me in thinking that you are 

 sometimes rather rash in venturing to say at what periods 

 the several groups first appeared. I have this advantage 

 over you, that I remember how wonderfully different any 

 statement on this subject made 20 years ago, would have 

 been to what would now be the case, and I expect the next 

 20 years will make quite as great a difference." 



The following extract from a letter to Professor W. 

 Preyer, a well-known physiologist, shows that he estimated 

 at its true value the help he was to receive from the scien- 

 tific workers of Germany : 



March 31, 1868. 



.... I am delighted to hear that you uphold the doc- 

 trine of the Modification of Species, and defend my views. 

 The support which I receive from Germany is my chief 

 ground for hoping that our views will ultimately prevail. 

 To the present day I am continually abused or treated with 

 contempt by writers of my own country ; but the younger 

 naturalists are almost all on my side, and sooner or later 

 the public must follow those who make the subject their 

 special study. The abuse and contempt of ignorant writers 

 hurts me very little. . . . 



I must now pass on to the publication, in 1868, of his 

 book on The Variation of Animals and Plants under Do- 

 mestication. It was began two days after the appearance of 

 the second edition of the Origin, on Jan. 9, 1860, and it 

 may, I think, be reckoned that about half of the eight 

 years that elapsed between its commencement and comple- 

 tion was spent on it. The book did not escape adverse 

 criticism : it was said, for instance, that the public had been 

 patiently waiting for Mr. Darwin's pieces justicatives, and 



* Die naturliclie Schopfungs- GescMchte, 1868. It was translated and 

 published in 1876, under the title, The History of Creation. 



