32 



SPREAD OF EVOLUTION. 



[1865. 



1865, 'Life/ vol. ii. p. 385), Lyell wrote, "The address is 

 a great step towards your views — far greater, I believe, than 

 it seems when read merely with reference to criticisms and 

 objections " :] 



C. Darwin to C. Lyell. 



Down, January 22, 1865. 



My DEAR Lyell, — I thank you for your very interesting 

 letter. I have the true English instinctive reverence for rank, 

 and therefore liked to hear about the Princess Royal* You 

 ask what I think of the Duke's address, and I shall be glad to 

 tell you. It seems to me extremely clever, like everything I 

 have read of his ; but I am not shaken — perhaps you will say 

 that neither gods nor men could shake me. I demur to the 

 Duke reiterating his objection that the brilliant plumage of 

 the male humming-bird could not have been acquired through 

 selection, at the same time entirely ignoring my discussion 

 (p. 93, 3rd edition) on beautiful plumage being acquired 

 through sexual selection. The Duke may think this insuf- 

 ficient, but that is another question. All analogy makes me 

 quite disagree with the Duke that the difference in the beak, 

 wing, and tail, are not of importance to the several species. 

 In the only two species which I have watched, the difference 

 in flight and in the use of the tail was conspicuously great. 



The Duke, who knows my Orchid book so well, might have 

 learnt a lesson of caution from it, with respect to his doctrine 



letter from Leo Lesquereux (after 

 doubts, I did not think it worth 

 sending you) on Coal Flora. He 

 wrote some excellent articles in 

 ' Silliman ' against ' Origin ' views ; 

 but he says now, after repeated 

 reading of the book, he is a con- 

 vert ! " 



* " I had ... an animated con- 



versation on Darwinism with the 

 Princess Royal, who is a worthy 

 daughter of her father, in the read- 

 ing of good books, and thinking of 

 what she reads. She was very 

 much au fait at the ' Origin,' and 

 Huxley's book, the ■ Antiquity/ 

 &c."— LyelPs ' Life,' vol. ii. p. 385. 



