1870— 18S2] WEISMANN 38 1 



How detestable are the Roman numerals ! why should Letter 290 

 not the President's addresses, which are often, and I am sure 

 in this case, worth more than all the rest of the number, be 

 paged with Christian figures ? 



To R. Meldola. 1 Letter 291 



4, Bryanston Street, Nov. 26th, 187S. 

 I am very sorry to say that I cannot agree to your 

 suggestion. An author is never a fit judge of his own work, 

 and I should dislike extremely pointing out when and how 

 Weismann's conclusions and work agreed with my own. I 

 feel sure that I ought not to do this, and it would be to me 

 an intolerable task. Nor does it seem to me the proper office 

 of the preface, which is to show what the book contains, and 

 that the contents appear to me valuable. But I can see no 

 objection for you, if you think fit, to write an introduction 

 with remarks or criticisms of any kind. Of course, I would 

 be glad to advise you on any point as far as lay in my power, 

 but as a whole I could have nothing to do with it, on the 

 grounds above specified, that an author cannot and ought not 

 to attempt to judge his own works, or compare them with 

 others. I am sorry to refuse to do anything which you wish. 



To T. H. Huxley. Letter 292 



Down, Jan. iSth, 1S79. 



I have just finished your present of the Life of Hume, 2 and 

 must thank you for the great pleasure which it has given me. 

 Your discussions are, as it seems to me, clear to a quite 

 marvellous degree, and many of the little interspersed flashes 



1 " This letter was in reply to a suggestion that in his preface Mr. 

 Darwin should point out by references to The Origin of Species and his 

 other writings how far he had already traced out the path which Weis- 

 mann went over. The suggestion was made because in a great many of 

 the continental writings upon the theory of descent, many of the points 

 which had been clearly foreshadowed, and in some cases even explicitly 

 stated by Darwin, had been rediscovered and published as though 

 original. In the notes to my edition of Weismann I have endeavoured to 

 do Darwin full justice. — R. M." See Letter 310. 



2 Hume in Mr. Morley's English Men of Letters series. Of the 

 biographical part of this book Mr. Huxley wrote, in a letter to Mr. 

 Skelton, Jan. 1879 (Life of T. H. Huxley, II., p. 7) ; " It is the nearest 

 approach to a work of fiction of which I have yet been guilty.'' 



