268 'VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION.' [1868. 



it is proper for me to do so, but I must and will thank you 



for the pleasure which you have given me. I am delighted at 



what you say about my book, I got so tired of it, that for 



months together I thought myself a perfect fool for having 



given up so much time in collecting and observing little facts, 



but now I do not care if a score of common critics speak as 



contemptuously of the book as did the Athe7iceiL7n. I feel 



justified in this, for I have so complete a reliance on your 



judgment that I feel certain that I should have bowed to your 



judgment had it been as unfavourable as it is the contrary. 



What you say about Pangenesis quite satisfies me, and is as 



much perhaps as any one is justified in saying. I have read 



your whole Address with the greatest interest. It must have 



cost you a vast amount of trouble. With cordial thanks, 



pray believe me, 



Yours very sincerely, 



Ch. Darwin. 



P.S. — I fear that it is not likely that you have a superfluous 

 copy of your Address ; if you have, I should much like to 

 send one to Fritz Mtiller in the interior of Brazil. By the 

 way let me add that I discussed bud-variation chiefly from a 

 belief which is common to several persons, that all variability 

 is related to sexual generation ; I wished to show clearly that 

 this was an error. 



[The above series of letters may serve to show to some 

 extent the reception which the new book received. Before 

 passing on (in the next chapter) to the ' Descent of Man,' I 

 give a letter referring to the translation of Fritz Miiller's book, 

 ' Ftir Darwin.' It was originally published in 1864, but the 

 English translation, by Mr. Dallas, which bore the title sug- 

 gested by Sir C. Lyell, of * Facts and Arguments for Darwin,' 

 did not appear until 1869 :] 



