1859-1863] NATURAL SELECTION 135 



the imperfection of the Geological Record, though no language Letter 88 

 can be stronger or arguments fairer and sounder against it. Of 

 course I am influenced by Botany, and the conviction that we 

 have not in a fossilised condition a fraction of the plants that 

 have existed, and that not a fraction of those we have are 

 recognisable specifically. I never saw so clearly put the fact 

 that it is not intermediates between existing species we want, 

 but between these and the unknown tertium quid. 



You certainly make a hobby of Natural Selection, and pro- 

 bably ride it too hard ; that is a necessity of your case. If 

 the improvement of the creation-by-variation doctrine is con- 

 ceivable, it will be by unburthening your theory of Natural 

 Selection, which at first sight seems overstrained — i.e., to 

 account for too much. I think, too, that some of your 

 difficulties which you override by Natural Selection may give 

 way before other explanations. But, oh Lord ! how little wc 

 do know and have known to be so advanced in knowledge by 

 one theory. If we thought ourselves knowing dogs before 

 you revealed Natural Selection, what d — d ignorant ones u/e 

 must surely be now wc do know that law. 



I hear you may be at the Club on Thursday. I hope so. 

 Huxley will not be there, so do not come on that ground. 



To T. H. Huxley. Letter S9 



Jan. 1st [1S60]. 



I write one line merely to thank you for your pleasant 



note, and to say that I will keep your secret. I will shake 



my head as mysteriously as Lord Burleigh. Several persons 



have asked me who wrote that " most remarkable article " in 



the Times} As a cat may look at a king, so I have said that 



I strongly suspected you. X was so sharp that the first 



sentence revealed the authorship. The Z.'s (God save the 



mark) thought it was Owen's ! You may rely on it that it 



has made a deep impression, and I am heartily glad that the 



subject and I owe you this further obligation. But for God's 



sake, take care of your health ; remember that the brain 



takes years to rest, whilst the muscles take only hours. There 



is poor Dana, to whom I used to preach by letter, writes to 



1 The Times, December 26th, 1859, p. 8. The opening paragraphs 

 were by one of the staff of the Times. See Life ami Letters, 1 1., p. 255, 

 for Mr. Huxley's interesting account of his share in the matter. 



