108 WORK ON 'MAN.' [1869. 



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 natur- 

 ally. 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 assailed 

 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 understanding 

 whether or not 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 Athencenm, August 14, 1869. 

 The writer comments with some little bitterness on the 

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

 editions do not mean real success. The book has sold ; the 

 guess has been talked over ; and the circulation and discus- 

 sion sum up the significance of the editions." Mr. Robertson 

 makes the true, but misleading statement : " Mr. Darwin 

 prefaces his fifth English edition with an Essay, which he 



