SPREAD OF EVOLUTION. [1863, 



more so) that it is too severe ; it struck me as given with 

 judicial force. It might perhaps be said with truth that he 

 had no business to judge on a subject on which he knows 

 nothing ; but compilers must do this to a certain extent. 

 (You know I value and rank high compilers, being one my- 

 self !) I have taken you at your word, and scribbled at great 

 length. If I get the Athenaum to-morrow, I will add my 

 impression of Owen's letter. 



.... The Lyells are coming here on Sunday evening to 

 stay till Wednesday. I dread it, but I must say how much 

 disappointed I am that he has not spoken out on species, still 

 less on man. And the best of the joke is that he thinks he 

 has acted with the courage of a martyr of old. I hope I may 

 have taken an exaggerated view of his timidity, and shall 

 particularly be glad of your opinion on this head.* When 

 I got his book I turned over the pages, and saw he had dis- 

 cussed the subject of species, and said that I thought he 

 would do more to convert the public than all of us, and now 

 (which makes the case worse for me) I must, in common 

 honesty, retract. I wish to Heaven he had said not a word 

 on the subject. 



Wednesday morning : I have read the Athenceum. I do 

 not think Lyell will be nearly so much annoyed as you ex- 

 pect. The concluding sentence is no doubt very stinging. 

 No one but a good anatomist could unravel Owen's letter ; 

 at least it is quite beyond me. 



. . . Lyell's memory plays him false when he says all 

 anatomists were astonished at Owen's paper ; f it was often 

 quoted with approbation. I well remember Lyell's admira- 

 tion at this new classification ! (Do not repeat this.) I re- 

 member it, because, though I knew nothing whatever about 



* On this subject my father wrote to Sir Joseph Hooker : " Cordial 

 thanks for your deeply interesting letters about Lyell, Owen, and Co. I 

 cannot say how glad I am to hear that I have not been unjust about the 

 species-question towards Lyell. I feared I had been unreasonable." 



f " On the Characters, c., of the Class Mammalia." ' Linn. Soc. Jour- 

 nal,' ii, 1858, 



