30 SPREAD OF EVOLUTION. [1864. 



anything better done. I had much wished his article answered, 

 and indeed thought of doing so myself, so that I considered 

 several points. You have hit on all, and on some in addition, 

 and oh ! by Jove, how well you have done it. As I read on 

 and came to point after point on which I had thought, I could 

 not help jeering and scoffing at myself, to see how infinitely 

 better you had done it than I could have done. Well, if any 

 one, who does not understand Natural Selection, will read this, 

 he will be a blockhead if it is not as clear as daylight. Old 

 Flourens * was hardly worth the powder and shot ; but how 

 capitally you bring in about the Academician, and your 

 metaphor of the sea-sand is inimitable. 



It is a marvel to me how you can resist becoming a regular 

 reviewer. Well, I have exploded now, and it has done me a 

 deal of good. . . . 



[In the same article in the ' Natural History Review/ Mr. 

 Huxley speaks of the book above alluded to by Flourens, the 

 Secretaire Perpetuel of the Academic des Sciences, as one 

 of the two "most elaborate criticisms" of the 'Origin of 

 Species ' of the year. He quotes the following passage : 



" M. Darwin continue : ' Aucune distinction absolue n'a ete 

 et ne peut etre etablie entre les especes et les varietes ! Je 

 vous ai deja dit que vous vous trompiez ; une distinction 

 absolue separe les varietes d'avec les especes." Mr. Huxley 

 remarks on this, " Being devoid of the blessings of an Aca- 

 demy in England, we are unaccustomed to see our ablest men 

 treated in this way even by a Perpetual Secretary." After 

 demonstrating M. Flourens' misapprehension of Natural 

 Selection, Mr. Huxley says, " How one knows it all by heart, 

 and with what relief one reads at p. 65, 'Je laisse M. 

 Darwin.' " 



On the same subject my father wrote to Mr. Wallace : 



"A great gun, Flourens, has written a little dull book 



* ' Examen du livre de M. Darwin sur 1'origine des especes. Par 

 P. Flourens.' 8vo. Paris, 1864. 



