2i6 SPREAD OF EVOLUTION. [1865, 



my life, my dear fellow, it is a very good book, but oh ! my 

 gracious, it is tough reading, and I wish it were done." * 



The following letter refers to the Duke of Argyll's address 

 to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, December 5th, 1864, in 

 which he criticises the ' Origin of Species.' My father seems 

 to have read the Duke's address as reported in the Scotsman 

 of December 6th, 1865. In a letter to my father (Jan. 16, 

 1865, 'Life,' vol. ii. p. 385), Lyell wrote, "The address is a 

 great step towards your views far greater, I believe, than 

 it seems when read merely with reference to criticisms and 

 objections."] 



C. Darwin to C. Lyell. 



Down, January 22, 1865. 



MY DEAR LYELL, I thank you for your very interesting 

 letter. I have the true English instinctive reverence for rank, 

 and therefore liked to hear about the Princess Royal. f You 

 ask what I think of the Duke's address, and I shall be glad to 

 tell you. It seems to me extremely clever, like everything I 

 have read of his ; but I am not shaken perhaps you will say 

 that neither gods nor men could shake me. I demur to the 

 Duke reiterating his objection that the brilliant plumage of 

 the male humming-bird could not have been acquired through 

 selection, at the same time entirely ignoring my discussion 

 (p. 93, 3rd edition) on beautiful plumage being acquired 



* Towards the end of the year my father received the news of a new 

 convert to his views, in the person of the distinguished American natural- 

 ist Lesquereux. He wrote to Sir J. D. Hooker : " I have had an enormous 

 letter from Leo Lesquereux (after doubts, I did not think it worth send- 

 ing you) on Coal Flora. He wrote some excellent articles in ' Silliman ' 

 against ' Origin ' views ; but he says now, after repeated reading of the 

 book, he is a convert ! " 



f " I had ... an animated conversation on Darwinism with the Prin- 

 cess Royal, who is a worthy daughter of her father, in the reading of good 

 books, and thinking of what she reads. She was very much au fait at the 

 'Origin,' and Huxley's book, the ' Antiquity,' &c." (Lyell's ' Life,' vol. 

 U. p. 385-) 



