60 'VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION.' [l86/. 



a fair idea of the whole book. Pray do not publish blindly, 

 as it would vex me all my life if I led you to heavy loss." 



Mr. Murray referred the MS. to a literary friend, and, in 

 spite of a somewhat adverse opinion, willingly agreed to 

 publish the book. My father wrote : 



"Your note has been a great relief to me. I am rather 

 alarmed about the verdict of your friend, as he is not a man 

 of science. I think if you had sent the ' Origin ' to an un- 

 scientific man, he would have utterly condemned it. I am, 

 however, very glad that you have consulted any one on whom 

 you can rely. 



" I must add, that my ' Journal of Researches ' was seen in 

 MS. by an eminent semi-scientific man, and was pronounced 

 unfit for publication." 



The proofs were begun in March, and the last revise was 

 finished on November I5th, and during this period the only 

 intervals of rest were two visits of a week each at his brother 

 Erasmus's house in Queen Anne Street. He notes in his 

 Diary : 



"I began this book [in the] beginning of 1860 (and then 

 had some MS.), but owing to interruptions from my illness, 

 and illness of children ; from various editions of the ' Origin,' 

 and Papers, especially Orchis book and Tendrils, I have 

 spent four years and two months over it." 



The edition of 'Animals and Plants' was of 1500 copies, 

 and of these 1260 were sold at Mr. Murray's autumnal sale, 

 but it was not published until January 30, 1868. A new 

 edition of 1250 copies was printed in February of the same year. 



In 1867 he received the distinction of being made a 

 knight of the Prussian Order " Pour le Merite." * He seems 



* The Order " Pour le Merite" and military, and in 1840 the Order 



was founded in 1 740 by Frederick II. was again opened to civilians. The 



by the re-christening of an " Order order consists of thirty members 



of Generosity," founded in 1665. It of German extraction, but dis- 



was at one time strictly military, tinguished foreigners are admitted 



having been previously both civil to a kind of extraordinary member- 



