52 1860-1865 : PEKSONAL 



great one, there are acknowledged organs for its discussion, 

 accessible to all taking a true interest and capable of ap- 

 preciating the men and their arguments, and to fling these 

 down to be scrambled for in a weekly periodical is somehow 

 derogatory. I dare say I do not explain my meaning, nor 

 should I convincayou if I did. Of one thing I can assure you, 

 that it is never worth your while, whose working moments are 

 worth so much to us, to waste one thought on the discussion. 

 After all you could only impress outsiders — who would forget 

 and turn like the wind to the next writer, and it is the dignity 

 of the subject more than of the proceeding which I am 

 considering. 



In the event Darwin did not reply. He was more than 

 satisfied with the answer made by Huxley in the Natural His- 

 tory Beview the following month, entitled * Criticisms on the 

 Origin of Species ' (see ' Collected Essays,' ii., Darwiniana, 

 p. 80). 



In a similar strain he adds in his letter of May 1863 how 



Falconer has his hands full and goes to Paris to-morrow to 

 confront Quatrefages, Bouchet and the chemists and anato- 

 mists, who to a man say that F. is wrong that both Flints 

 and jaw [human remains found in a cave with the remains of 

 extinct animals] are ancient, and perfide Albion at its old tricks 

 of traduction. I met F. last night ; he is beating up for 

 allies to take over with him. I tell him he should go alone — 

 it is his only chance of getting fair play. The more go, the 

 more opposition, the more misunderstanding, the more all 

 that is bad. 1 



Where, however, the ground of contention was no more 

 than a reclamation for priority or recognition of material 

 used, much as he disliked the practice, he exerted himself 

 privately to bring about a reconciliation. Such were two 

 public reclames made against the veteran Lyell. One was by 

 Falconer, who complained loudly that his and Prestwich's 

 researches had not met with proper recognition in ' The 

 Antiquity of Man ' (1863). Of his idiosyncrasy in suddenly 



1 The whole misunderstanding is told in CD. iii. 14, 19, 21, and M.L. i. 

 229-41 ; cp. ii. 377. 



