i860.] second edition. 59 



C. Darwin to C. Lyell. 



Down, January loth [i860]. 



.... It is perfectly true that I owe nearly all the correc- 

 tions * to you, and several verbal ones to you and others ; I 

 am heartily glad you approve of them, as yet only two things 

 have annoyed me ; those confounded millions \ of years (not 

 that I think it is probably wrong), and my not having (by 

 inadvertance) mentioned Wallace towards the close of the 

 book in the summary, not that any one has noticed this to me. 

 I have now put in Wallace's name at p. 484 in a conspicuous 

 place. I cannot refer you to tables of mortality of children, 

 &c. &c. I have notes somewhere, but I have not the least 

 idea where to hunt, and my notes would now be old. I shall 

 be truly glad to read carefully any MS. on man, and give my 

 opinion. You used to caution me to be cautious about man, 

 I suspect I shall have to return the caution a hundred fold ! 

 Yours will, no doubt, be a grand discussion ; but it will 

 horrify ths world at first more than my whole volume ; 

 although by the sentence (p. 489, new edition %) \ show that 

 I believe man is in the same predicament with other animals. 

 It is, in fact, impossible to doubt it. I have thought (only 

 vaguely) on man. With respect to the races, one of my best 

 chances of truth has broken down from the impossibility of 

 getting facts. I have one good speculative line, but a man 

 must have entire credence in Natural Selection before he will 

 even listen to it. Psychologically, I have done scarcely any- 



* The second edition of 3000 copies of the ' Origin * was published on 

 January 7th. 



f This refers to the passage in the * Origin of Species ' (2nd edit., p. 

 285), in which the lapse of time implied by the denudation of the Weald is 

 discussed. The discussion closes with the sentence : " So that it is not im- 

 probable that a longer period than 300 million years has elapsed since 

 the latter part of the Secondary period." This passage is omitted in the 

 later editions of the ' Origin,' against the advice of some of his friends, as 

 appears from the pencil notes in my father's copy of the 2nd edition. 



X First edition, p. 4S8. 



