( 332 ) 



CHAPTER XI. 



AN EPISODE. 



&quot; Mr. Chauncey Wright s criticism of the author s views having been 

 vepublished and widely circulated by Mr. Darwin, the reply to that 

 criticism is here reproduced.&quot; 



THE subjects of natural and sexual selection having been 

 A digression treated of, that which should come next (the ques- 

 Ipedafci^ ti u as to causes) would be immediately entered 

 cumstances. U p ODj k u t that exceptional circumstances induce a 

 digression which may have the effect of confirming and 

 substantiating views put forward in the last two chapters. 

 These circumstances are : (1) The publication in the North 

 American Keview, for July 1871, of an elaborate criticism of 

 the Genesis of Species/ by a distinguished writer of the United 

 States, Mr. Chauncey Wright; (2) The fact that Mr. Darwin 

 has had this criticism republished in England and very ex 

 tensively circulated, a copy having been sent to almost every 

 known naturalist in the British Isles or abroad. 



By the courtesy of the editor of the North American 

 Keview, I was enabled to publish a reply to Mr. Chauncey 

 Wright s criticism in the form of a letter at the end of the 

 235th number of that Review, that for April 1872. Never 

 theless, the diffusion of that reply must necessarily have been 

 much less than the diffusion of the criticism in its original and 

 its republished form. On this account I think it well to 

 reproduce it here ; but there are also other reasons which 

 determine me to do so. (1) Mr. Darwin must have thought 

 Mr. Chauncey Wright s defence of him extremely important, 

 to have taken the steps he did in reference to it. It cannot 



