i860 :882] HORNER 31 



together in a condensed focus, that the case seems much Letter 404 

 clearer to me. How curious about the Bible ! 1 I declare I 

 had fancied that the date was somehow in the Bible. You are 

 conning out in a new light as a Biblical critic. I must thank 

 you for some remarks on the Origin of Species' 1 (though I sup- 

 pose it is almost as incorrect to do so as to thank a judge for 

 a favourable verdict) : what you have said has pleased me ex- 

 tremely. I am the more pleased, as I would rather have been 

 well attacked than have been handled in the namby-pamby, 

 old-woman style of the cautious Oxford Professor. 3 



To J. D. Hooker. Letter 405 



Mr. Wallace was, we believe, the first to treat the evolution of Man in 

 any detail from the point of view of Natural Selection, namely, in a paper 

 in the Anthropological Review and Journal of the Anthropological Society, 

 May 1864, p. clviii. The deep interest with which Mr. Darwin read his 

 copy is graphically recorded in the continuous series of pencil-marks along 

 the margins of the pages. His views are fully given in Letter 406. The 

 phrase, "in this case it is too far," refers to Mr. Wallace's habit of 

 speaking of the theory of Natural Selection as due entirely to Darwin. 



May 22nd 1864. 



I have now read Wallace's paper on Man, and think it 

 most striking and original and forcible. I wish he had written 



1 At p. Ixviii. Mr. Homer points out that the " chronology, given in 

 the margin of our Bibles," i.e. the statement that the world was created 

 4004 B.C., is the work of Archbishop Usher, and is in no way binding on 

 those who believe in the inspiration of Scripture. Mr. Homer goes on 

 (p. Ixx) : " The retention of the marginal note in question is by no means 

 a matter of indifference ; it is untrue, and therefore it is mischievous." 

 It is interesting that Archbishop Sumner and Dr. Dawes, Dean of 

 Hereford, wrote with approbation of Mr. Horner's views on Man. The 

 Archbishop says : " I have always considered the first verse of Genesis 

 as indicating, rather than denying, a preadamite world" (Memoir of 

 Leonard Horner, II., p. 303). 



2 Mr. Homer (p. xxxix) begins by disclaiming the qualifications of a 

 competent critic, and confines himself to general remarks on the 

 philosophic candour aud freedom from dogmatism of the Origin : he 

 does, however, give an opinion on the geological chapters IX. and X. As 

 a general criticism he quotes Mr. Huxley's article in the Westminster 

 Review, which may now be read in Collected Essays, II., p. 22. 



3 This no doubt refers to Professor Phillips' Life on the Earth, 1860, 

 a book founded on the author's " Rede Lecture," given before the 

 University of Cambridge. Reference to this work will be found in Life 

 and Letters, II., pp. 309, 358, 373. 



