VIII 



THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES" 



If you ever arrive at any definite conclusion, either 

 wholly or partially for or against Pangenesis, I should 

 very much like to hear ; for I settled some time ago, 

 that I should think more of Huxley's and your opinion, 

 from the course of your studies and clearness of 

 mind, than of that of any other man in England. H. 

 Spencer's views, I hear from him, are quite different 

 from mine : he says he shall think over the subject, but 

 apparently he does not yet quite understand what I 

 mean. 



There is a rather nice Review of you in last Athenaeum 

 and a very unnice one of my book ; I suspect, from two 

 or three little points, by Owen. — Ever yours very truly, 



C. Darwin. 



This year (1860) was remarkable in the annals 

 of science for the publication of Darwin's great 

 work on the Origin of Species. Writing to Dr. 

 (Sir J.) Hooker on March 3, 1860, he gives the 

 following table of those who went with him in 

 his conclusions : x 





The Origin of Species raised a storm of con- 

 troversy, and even of obloquy, on the head of 

 an author so greatly daring as to disturb the 

 ideas of the creation story in which mankind 

 had hitherto — or at all events until the slightly 

 earlier publication of Ly ell's Geology — been 

 brought up. (Lubbock was, of course, on the <c 



1 Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, vol. ii. p. 293. 

 VOL. I E 



