162 DARWINIANISM. 



from the few letters to him, we> shall quote first, as thus 

 <ii. 299 and 238) 



" My dear Carpenter, I have this minute finished your review 

 I have not a criticism to make, for I object to not a word I admire 

 all it is all so well balanced it is impossible not to be struck with 

 your extent of knowledge in geology, botany, and zoology." " My 

 dear Carpenter, I am perfectly delighted at your letter it is a 

 great thing to have got a great physiologist on our side I am 

 astonished at the candour shown by Lyell, Hooker, Huxley, and 

 yourself." 



To Huxley (ii. 232, 173) Darwin intimates : " There 

 were three judges on whose decision I determined mentally 

 to abide Lyell, Hooker, and yourself " " if you and two 

 or three others think I am on the right road, I shall not 

 care what the mob of naturalists think." It is always in 

 the same grateful tone that Mr. Darwin writes to his 

 "good and kind agent" (ii. 331, iii. 45) "the best of 

 critics and most learned man "- 



"My dear Huxley, If I do not pour out my admiration of your 

 article, I shall explode I never read anything better done there 

 is no one who writes like you ; if I were in your shoes, I should 

 tremble for my life " " I should have said that there was only one 

 man in England who could have written this essay, and that you 

 were the man"" I really know no one else whose judgment on the 

 subject would be final with me " " My dear Huxley, I have been 

 delighted to see your review, and as usual you pile honours high on 

 my head " " what a wonderful man you are no mortal man will 

 do half as much as you " " I must tell you what Hooker said to me 

 a few years ago : ' When I read Huxley, I feel quite infantile in 

 intellect ' By Jove, I have felt the truth of this throughout your 

 review What a man you are There are scores of splendid passages, 

 and vivid flashes of wit" " You appear to have piled, as on so many 

 other occasions, honours high and thick on my old head I well 

 know how great a part you have played in establishing and spread- 

 ing the belief in the descent theory " (ii. 253, iii. 29, 43, 113, 119, 

 148, 150, 240). 



Mr. Huxley would have been more than mortal if such 

 interjections of admiration had failed to gratify him, and 



