32 DARWIN1ANISM. 



with your permission, send you a copy of the . manuscript, in the 

 hope of having misstatements, if any there be, corrected You will 

 have the goodness to let me know immediately whether it be agree- 

 able to you to take the trouble of reading the manuscript ; and if so, 

 to inform me as soon as you conveniently can after receiving it." 



A little peremptoriness here, perhaps, that might 

 not prove altogether agreeable after the gall of " more 

 specious than solid," and the general stilt of these propos 

 about transitions, and names, and arguments, and truth, 

 and that offered a result only of " amusement." Still, 

 Dr. Darwin seems, directly on receipt, to have sent a 

 very proper reply, expressing all polite willingness to 

 receive, and read, and " correct any inaccuracies," etc. 



Brown, however, has to wait exactly another month 

 before he can write Dr. Darwin again 



" DEAR SIR, I am extremely sorry that, after having placed you 

 in that disagreeable, state of suspense which the unexpected attack 

 of a stranger must in some degree occasion, the transmission of the 

 manuscript should have been so long unavoidably delayed There 

 are some terms, absurdity, etc. Such unavoidable harshnesses, I trust 

 your candour will forgive Your remarks will, of course, be limited 

 to the premises from which my reasonings are drawn, to the fair or 

 unfair manner in which I have stated your own opinions." 



The young man has his head a little in the air here, and 

 is perfectly unconscious of any supererogatory stab which 

 he may give, or of the possible impertinence of the impo- 

 sition of limits just suitable for himself ! But we have now 

 to see the effect of the perusal of the manuscript on Dr. 

 I );u win. Tliis, however, we cannot see directly. Brown's 

 last letter was dated November 27, and Dr. Darwin's 

 reply, after he had read the manuscript, seems to have 

 been written on December '1. That is, Dr. Darwin must 

 have read and written at once, for Derby and Edinburgh 

 were very far apart in those days. And what he wrote, 

 we can judge to have been tremendous ; for we are only 

 allowed partially to see Brown in return, and Dr. Darwin 



