i8;i.] 



REVIEWS. 



139 



On March 20 he wrote to Mr. Murray : — 



" Many thanks for the Nonconformist [March 8, 1871]. I 

 like to see all that is written, and it is of some real use. If 

 you hear of reviewers in out-of-the-way papers, especially the 

 religious, as Record, Guardian, Tablet, kindly inform me. It 

 is wonderful that there has been no abuse * as yet, but I 

 suppose I shall not escape. On the whole, the reviews have 

 been highly favourable." 



The following extract from a letter to Mr. Murray (April 

 13, 1 871) refers to a review in the Times.] 



" I have no idea who wrote the Times review. He has 

 no knowledge of science, and seems to me a wind-bag full 

 of metaphysics and classics, so that I do not much regard 

 his adverse judgment, though I suppose it will injure the 

 sale." 



A review of the ' Descent of Man,' which my father spoke 

 of as " capital," appeared in the Saturday Review (Mar. 4 

 and 11, 1871). A passage from the first notice (Mar. 4) may 

 be quoted in illustration of the broad basis, as regards general 

 acceptance, on which the doctrine of Evolution now stood : 

 " He claims to have brought man himself, his origin and 

 constitution, within that unity which he had previously 

 sought to trace through all lower animal forms. The growth 

 of opinion in the interval, due in chief measure to his own 

 intermediate works, has placed the discussion of this problem 



* " I feel a full conviction that 

 my chapter on man will excite 

 attention and plenty of abuse, and 

 I suppose abuse is as good as 

 praise for selling a book." — (From 

 a letter to Mr. Murray, Jan. 31, 

 1867.) 



f Times, April 7 and 8, 1871. 

 The review is not only unfavourable 

 as regards the book under dis- 

 cussion, but also as regards Evolu- 

 tion in general, as the following 



citation will show : " Even had it 

 been rendered highly probable, 

 which we doubt, that the animal 

 creation has been developed into 

 its numerous and widely different 

 varieties by mere evolution, it would 

 still require an independent investi- 

 gation of overwhelming force and 

 completeness to justify the pre- 

 sumption that man is but a term in 

 this self-evolving series." 



