14 SPREAD OF EVOLUTION. [1863 



I should not have made them unasked), I may specify 

 (pp. 412, 413) that such words as " Mr. D. labours to show," 

 "is believed by the author to throw light," would lead a 

 common reader to think that you yourself do not at all agree, 

 but merely think it fair to give my opinion. Lastly, you 

 refer repeatedly to my view as a modification of Lamarck's 

 doctrine of development and progression. If this is your 

 deliberate opinion there is nothing to be said, but it does 

 not seem so to me. Plato, Buffbn, my grandfather before 

 Lamarck, and others, propounded the obvious view that if 

 species were not created separately they must have descended 

 from other species, and I can see nothing else in common 

 between the * Origin ' and Lamarck. I believe this way of 

 putting the case is very injurious to its acceptance, as it 

 implies necessary progression, and closely connects Wallace's 

 and my views with what I consider, after two deliberate 

 readings, as a wretched book, and one from which (I well 

 remember my surprise) I gained nothing. But I know you 

 rank it higher, which is curious, as it did not in the least 

 shake your belief. But enough, and more than enough. 

 Please remember you have brought it all down on yourself ! ! 



I am very sorry to hear about Falconer's " reclamation." * 

 I hate the very word, and have a sincere affection for him. 



Did you ever read anything so wretched as the Athenceum 

 reviews of you, and of Huxley | especially. Your object to 

 make man old, and Huxley's object to degrade him. The 

 wretched writer has not a glimpse what the discovery of 

 scientific truth means. How splendid some pages are in 

 Huxley, but I fear the book will not be popular. . . . 



* " Falconer, whom I referred to prove it. I offered to alter any- 



oftener than to any other author, thing in the new edition, but this 



says I have not done justice to the he declined." C. Lyell to C. Dar- 



part he took in resuscitating the win, March n, 1863 ; Ly ell's { Life,' 



cave question, and says he shall vol. ii. p. 364. 

 come out with a separate paper to f 'Man's Place in Nature,' 1863. 



