1869.] FLEEMING JENKIN. 289 



which my father, as I believe, felt to be the most valuable 

 ever made on his views should have come, not from a pro- 

 fessed naturalist but from a Professor of Engineering. 



It is impossible to give in a short compass an account of 

 Fleeming Jenkin's argument. My father's copy of the paper 

 (ripped out of the volume as usual, and tied with a bit of 

 string) is annotated in pencil in many places. I may quote 

 one passage opposite which my father has written " good 

 sneers " — but it should be remembered that he used the word 

 " sneer " in rather a special sense, not as necessarily implying 

 a feeling of bitterness in the critic, but rather in the sense of 

 "banter." Speaking of the 'true believer,' Fleeming Jenkin 

 says, p. 293 :— 



" He can invent trains of ancestors of whose existence 

 there is no evidence ; he can marshal hosts of equally imagi- 

 nary foes; he can call up continents, floods, and peculiar 

 atmospheres ; he can dry up oceans, split islands, and parcel 

 out eternity at will ; surely with these advantages he must be 

 a dull fellow if he cannot scheme some series of animals and 

 circumstances explaining our assumed difficulty quite natu- 

 rally. Feeling the difficulty of dealing with adversaries who 

 command so huge a domain of fancy, we will abandon these 

 arguments, and trust to those which at least cannot be as- 

 sailed by mere efforts of imagination." 



In the fifth edition of the * Origin,' my father altered a 

 passage in the Historical Sketch (fourth edition p. xviii.). 

 He thus practically gave up the difficult task of understand- 

 ing whether or no Sir R. Owen claims to have discovered the 

 principle of Natural Selection. Adding, "As far as the mere 

 enunciation of the principle of Natural Selection is concerned, 

 it is quite immaterial whether or not Professor Owen preceded 

 me, for both of us. . . . were long ago preceded by Dr. Wells 

 and Mr. Matthew." 



A somewhat severe critique on the fifth edition, by Mr. 

 John Robertson, appeared in the Athenceum, August 14, 1869. 

 The writer comments with some little bitterness on the suc- 

 cess of the ' Origin : ' " Attention is not acceptance. Many 

 37 



