en. xiv.] 18611871. 289 



his adverse judgment, though I suppose it will injure the 

 sale." 



A striking review appeared in the Saturday Review 

 (March 4 and 11, 1871) in which the position of Evolution 

 is well stated. 



" He claims to have brought man himself, his origin and 

 constitution, within that unity which he had previously 

 sought to trace through all lower animal forms. The 

 growth of opinion in the interval, due in chief measure to 

 his own intermediate works, has placed the discussion of 

 this problem in a position very much in advance of that 

 held by it fifteen years ago. The problem of Evolution is 

 hardly any longer to be treated as one of first principles ; 

 nor has Mr. Darwin to do battle for a first hearing of his 

 central hypothesis, upborne as it is by a phalanx of names 

 full of distinction and promise in either hemisphere." 



We must now return to the history of the general prin- 

 ciple of Evolution. At the beginning of 1869* he was at 

 work on the fifth edition of the Origin. The most impor- 

 tant alterations were suggested by a remarkable paper in the 

 North British Review (June, 1867) written by the late 

 Fleeming Jenkin. 



It is not a little remarkable that the criticisms, which 

 my father, as I believe, _felt to be the most valuable ever 

 made on his views should have come, not from a professed 

 naturalist but from a Professor of Engineering. 



The point on which Fleeming Jenkin convinced my 

 father is the extreme difficulty of believing that single indi- 

 viduals which differ from their fellows in the possession of 

 some useful character can be the starting point of a new 

 variety. Thus the origin of a new variety is more likely to 



* His holiday this year was at Caerdeon, on the north shore of the beauti- 

 ful Barmouth estuary, and pleasantly placed in being close to wild hill coun- 

 try behind, as well as to the picturesque wooded " hummocks," between the 

 steeper hills and the river. My father was ill and somewhat depressed 

 throughout this visit, and I think felt imprisoned and saddened by his inabil- 

 ity to reach the hills over which he had once wandered for days together. 

 He wrote from Caerdeon to Sir J. D. Hooker (June 22nd) : 

 " We have been here for ten days, how I wish it was possible for you to 

 pay us a visit here ; we have a beautiful house with a terraced garden, and a 

 really magnificent view of Cader, right opposite. Old Cader is a grand fellow, 

 and shows himself off superbly with every changing light. We remain here 

 till the end of July, when the H. Wedgwoods have the house. I have been 

 as yet in a very poor way ; it seems as soon as the stimulus of mental work 

 stops, my whole strength gives way. As yet I have hardly crawled half a 

 mile from the house, and then have" been fearfullv fatigued. It is enough to 

 make one wish oneself quiet in a comfortable tomb." 



