30 SPREAD OF EVOLUTION. [1864. 



anything better done. I had much wished his article answered, 

 and indeed thought of doing so myself, so that I considered 

 several points. You have hit on all, and on some in addition, 

 and oh ! by Jove, how well you have done it. As I read on 

 and came to point after point on which I had thought, I could 

 not help jeering and scoffing at myself, to see how infinitely 

 better you had done it than I could have done. Well, if any 

 one, who does not understand Natural Selection, will read this, 

 he will be a blockhead if it is not as clear as daylight. Old 

 Flourens * was hardly worth the powder and shot ; but how 

 capitally you bring in about the Academician, and your 

 metaphor of the sea-sand is inimitable. 



It is a marvel to me how you can resist becoming a regular 

 reviewer. Well, I have exploded now, and it has done me a 

 deal of good. . . . 



("In the same article in the ' Natural History Review,' Mr. 

 Huxley speaks of the book above alluded to by Flourens, the 

 Secretaire Perpetuel of the French Academy, as one of the 

 two " most elaborate criticisms " of the ' Origin of Species ' 

 of the year. He quotes the following passage : — 



" M. Darwin continue : • Aucune distinction absolue n'a ete 

 et ne peut etre etablie entre les especes et les varietes ! Je 

 vous ai deja dit que vous vous trompiez ; une distinction 

 absolue separe les varietes d'avec les especes." Mr. Huxley 

 remarks on this, " Being devoid of the blessings of an Aca- 

 demy in England, we are unaccustomed to see our ablest men 

 treated in this way even by a Perpetual Secretary." After 

 demonstrating M. Flourens' misapprehension of Natural 

 Selection, Mr. Huxley says, " How one knows it all by heart, 

 and with what relief one reads at p. 65, 'Je laisse M. 

 Darwin.' " 



On the same subject my father wrote to Mr. Wallace : — 



"A great gun, Flourens, has written a little dull book 



* ' Examen du livre de M. Darwin sur l'origine des especes. Par 

 P. Flourens.' 8vo. Paris, 1864. 



