304 EVOLUTION [Chap. IV 



Letter 221 one has no time for reading anything beyond what must be 

 read : my room is encumbered with unread books. I agree 

 about Wallace's wonderful cleverness, but he is not cautious 

 enough in my opinion. I find I must (and I always distrust 

 myself when I differ from him) separate rather widely from 

 him all about birds' nests and protection ; he is riding that 

 hobby to death. I never read anything so miserable as 

 Andrew Murray's criticism on Wallace in the last number of 

 his Journal. 1 I believe this Journal will die, and I shall not 

 cry : what a contrast with the old Natural Histoiy Review. 



Letter 222 To J. D. Hooker. 



Freshwater, Isle of Wight, July 28th [1868]. 



I am glad to hear that you are going 2 to touch on the 

 statement that the belief in Natural Selection is passing 

 away. I do not suppose that even the Athencsum would 

 pretend that the belief in the common descent of species is 

 passing away, and this is the more important point. This 

 now almost universal belief in the evolution (somehow) of 

 species, I think may be fairly attributed in large part to the 

 Origin. It would be well for you to look at the short Intro- 

 duction of Owen's Anat. of Invertebrates, and see how fully he 

 admits the descent of species. 



Of the Origin, four English editions, one or two American, 

 two French, two German, one Dutch, one Italian, and several 

 (as I was told) Russian editions. The translations of my 

 book on Variation under Domestication are the results of the 

 Origin ; and of these two English, one American, one 

 German, one French, one Italian, and one Russian have 

 appeared, or will soon appear. Ernst Hackel wrote to me a 

 week or two ago, that new discussions and reviews of the 

 Origin are continually still coming out in Germany, where 

 the interest on the subject certainly does not diminish. I 

 have seen some of these discussions, and they are good ones. 

 I apprehend that the interest on the subject has not died 

 out in North America, from observing in Professor and Mrs. 



1 See Journal of Travel and Natural ///story, Vol. I., No. 3, p. 137, 

 London, 1868, for Andrew Murray's "Reply to Mr. Wallace's Theory of 

 Birds' Nests," which appeared in the same volume, p. 73. The Journal 

 came to an end after the publication of one volume for 1867-8. 



' In his Presidential Address at Norwich. 



