i87i.] EXPRESSION. 323 



[Mr. Mivart's ' Genesis of Species,' — a contribution to the 

 literature of Evolution, which excited much attention — was 

 published in 187 1, before the appearance of the ^Descent of 

 Man.' To this book the following letter (June 21, 187 1) from 

 the late Chauncey Wright * to my father refers] : 



" I sen4 . . . revised proofs of an article which will be 

 published in the July number of the ' North American Re- 

 view,' sending it in the hope that it will interest or even be 

 of greater value to you. Mr. Mivart's book [' Genesis of 

 Species '] of which this article is substantially a review, seems 

 to me a very good background from which to present the 

 considerations which I have endeavoured to set forth in the 

 article, in defence and illustration of the theory of Natural 

 Selection. My special purpose has been to contribute to the 

 theory by placing it in its proper relations to philosophical 

 inquiries in general." f 



With regard to the proofs received from Mr. Wright, my 

 father wrote to Mr. Wallace :] 



Down, July 9 [1871]. 



My dear Wallace, — I send by this post a review by 

 Chauncey Wright, as I much want your opinion of it as soon 

 as you can send it. I consider you an incomparably better 

 critic than I am. The article, though not very clearly 

 written, and poor in parts from want of knowledge, seems 

 to me admirable. Mivart's book is producing a great effect 



* Chauncey Wright was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, Sept. 20, 

 1830, and came of a family settled in that town since 1654. He became in 

 1852 a computer in the Nautical Almanac office at Cambridge, Mass , and 

 lived a quiet uneventful life, supported by the small stipend of his office, 

 and by what he earned from his occasional articles, as well as by a little 

 teaching. He thought and read much on metaphysical subjects, but on 

 the whole with an outcome (as far as the world was concerned) not com- 

 mensurate to the power of his mind. He seems to have been a man of 

 strong individuality, and to have made a lasting impression on his friends. 

 He died in Sept., 1875. 



•f ' Letters of Chauncey Wright,' by J. B. Thayer. Privately printed, 

 1S78, p. 230. 



