388 EVOLUTION [CHAP. V 



Letter 300 To T. H. Huxley. 



Down, Nov. 5th, 1880. 



On reading over your excellent review l with the sentence 

 quoted from Sir Wyville Thomson, it seemed to me advisable, 

 considering the nature of the publication, to notice "extreme 

 variation' and another point. Now, will you read the 

 enclosed, and if you approve, post it soon. If you disapprove, 

 throw it in the fire, and thus add one more to the thousand 

 kindnesses which you have done me. Do not write : I shall 

 see result in next week's Nature. Please observe that in the 

 foul copy I had added a final sentence which I did not at first 

 copy, as it seemed to me inferentially too contemptuous ; but 

 I have now pinned it to the back, and you can send it or not, 

 as you think best, that is, if you think any part worth send- 

 ing. My request will not cost you much trouble i.e. to read 

 two pages, for I know that you can decide at once. I heartily 

 enjoyed my talk with you on Sunday morning. 



P.S. If my manuscript appears too flat, too contemptuous, 

 too spiteful, or too anything, I earnestly beseech you to throw 

 it into the fire. 



Letter 301 C. Darwin to the Editor of Nature? 



Down, Nov. 5th, 1880. 



Sir Wyville Thomson and Natural Selection. 



I am sorry to find that Sir Wyville Thomson does not 

 understand the principle of Natural Selection, as explained by 

 Mr. Wallace and myself. If he had done so, he could not 

 have written the following sentence in the Introduction to the 

 Voyage of the Challenger : " The character of the abyssal 

 fauna refuses to give the least support to the theory which 

 refers the evolution of species to extreme variation guided 

 only by Natural Selection." This is a standard of criticism 

 not uncommonly reached by theologians and metaphysicians, 

 when they write on scientific subjects, but is something new 

 as coming from a naturalist. Professor Huxley demurs to it 

 in the last number of Nature ; but he does not touch on the 



1 See Nature, Nov. 4th, 1880, p. i, a review of Vol. I. of the publica- 

 tions of the Challenger, to which Sir Wyville Thomson contributed a 

 General Introduction. 



2 Nature, Nov. nth, 1880, p. 32. 



