146 ' DESCENT OF MAN ' — EXPRESSION. [1871. 



" It pleases me much that you are satisfied with the appear- 

 ance of your pamphlet. I am sure it will do our cause good 

 service ; and this same opinion Huxley has expressed to me. 

 ('Letters of Chauncey Wright,' p. 235.)"] 



C. Darwin to A. R. Wallace. 



Down, July 12 [187 1]. 



.... I feel very doubtful how far I shall succeed in 

 answering Mivart, it is so difficult to answer objections to 

 doubtful points, and make the discussion readable. I shall 

 make only a selection. The worst of it is, that I cannot 

 possibly hunt through all my references for isolated points, it 

 would take me three weeks of intolerably hard work. I wish 

 I had your power of arguing clearly. At present I feel sick 

 of everything, and if I could occupy my time and forget my 

 daily discomforts, or rather miseries, I would never publish 

 another word. But I shall cheer up, I dare say, soon, having 

 only just got over a bad attack. Farewell ; God knows why 

 I bother you about myself. I can say nothing more about 

 missing-links than what I have said. I should rely much on 

 pre-silurian times ; but then comes Sir W. Thomson like an 

 odious spectre. Farewell. 

 . . . There is a most cutting review of me in the 'Quarterly';* 

 I have only read a few pages. The skill and style make me 

 think of Mivart. I shall soon be viewed as the most despic- 

 able of men. This ' Quarterly Review ' tempts me to republish 

 Ch. Wright, even if not read by any one, just to show 

 some one will say a word against Mivart, and that his (i.e. 

 Mivart's) remarks ought not to be swallowed without some 

 reflection. . . . God knows whether my strength and spirit 

 will last out to write a chapter versus Mivart and others ; I 

 do so hate controversy and feel I shall do it so badly. 



* July 187 1, 



