i867.] 'JOURNAL OF RESEARCHES/ 243 



a fair idea of the whole book. Pray do not publish blindly, 

 as it would vex me all my life if I led you to heavy loss." 



Mr. Murray referred the MS. to a literary friend, and, in 

 spite of a somewhat adverse opinion, willingly agreed to pub- 

 lish the book. My father wrote : — 



" Your note has been a great relief to me. I am rather 

 alarmed about the verdict of ycur friend, as he is not a man 

 of science. I think if you had sent the ' Origin ' to an un- 

 scientific man, he would have utterly condemned it. I am, 

 however, very glad that you have consulted any one on whom 

 you can rely. 



" I must add, that my ' Journal of Researches ' was seen 

 in MS. by an eminent semi-scientific man, and was pronounced 

 unfit for publication." 



The proofs were begun in March, and the last revise was 

 finished on November 15th, and during this period the only 

 intervals of rest were two visits of a week each at his brother 

 Erasmus's house in Queen Anne Street. He notes in his 

 Diary : — 



"I began this book [in the] beginning of i860 (and then 

 had some MS.), but owing to interruptions from my illness, 

 and illness of children ; from various editions of the ' Origin,' 

 and Papers, especially Orchis book and Tendrils, I have 

 spent four years and two months over it." 



The edition of 'Animals and Plants ' was of 1500 copies, 

 and of these 1260 were sold at Mr. Murray's autumnal sale, 

 but it was not published until January 30, 1868. A new edi- 

 tion of 1250 copies was printed in February of the same year. 



In 1867 he received the distinction of being made a 

 knight of the Prussian Order " Pour le Merite." * He seems 



* The Order " Pour le Merite " was founded in 1740 by Frederick II. 

 by the re-christening of an "Order of Generosity," founded in 1665. It 

 was at one time strictly military, having been previously both civil and 

 niilitar)% and in 1840 the Order was again opened to civilians. The order 

 consists of thirty members of German extraction, but distinguished foreign- 

 ers are admitted to a kind of extraordinary membership. Faraday, Her- 

 schel, and Thomas Moore, have belonged to it in this way. From the 



