Ch. XII.] OCTOBER 1859, TO DECEMBEB 1859. 213 



one side of a question for thirty years, and then deliberately 

 give it up, is a fact to which I much doubt whether the 

 records of science offer a parallel. .For myself, also I rejoice 

 profoundly ; for, thinking of so many cases of men pursuing 

 an illusion for years, often and often a cold shudder has run 

 through me, and I have asked myself whether I may not have 

 devoted my life to a phantasy. Now I look at it as morally 

 impossible that investigators of truth, like you and Hooker, 

 can be wholly wrong, and therefore I rest in peace." 



T. H. Huxley * to C. Darwin. Jermyn Street, W. November 

 23rd, 1859. 



My dbar Daewin, — I finished your book yesterday, a lucky 

 examination having furnished me with a few hours of con- 

 tinuous leisure. 



Since I read Von Bar's f essays, nine years ago, no work 

 on Natural History Science I have met with has made so 

 great an impression upon me, and I do most heartily thank 

 you for the great store of new views you have given me. 

 Nothing, I think, can be better than the tone of the book, it 

 impresses those who know nothing about the subject. As for 

 your doctrine, I am prepared to go to the stake, if requisite, in 

 support of Chapter IX.,J and most parts of Chapters X., XL, 

 XII. ; and Chapter XIII. contains much that is most admirable, 

 but on one or two points I enter a caveat until I can see 

 further into all sides of the question. 



As to the first four chapters, I agree thoroughly and fully 



* In a letter written in October, my father had said, " I am intensely 

 curious to hear Huxley's opinion of my book. I fear my long discussion 

 on classification will disgust him, for it is much opposed to what he 

 once said to me." He may have remembered the following incident told 

 by Mr. Huxley in his chapter of the Life and Letters, ii. p. 196 : — " I 

 remember, in the course of my first interview with Mr. Darwin, expressing 

 my belief in the sharpness of the lines of demarcation between natural 

 groups and in the absence of transitional forms, with all the confidence of 

 youth and imperfect knowledge. I was not aware, at that time, that he 

 had then been many years brooding over the species question ; and the 

 humorous smile which accompanied his gentle answer, that such was not 

 altogether his view, long haunted and puzzled me." 



t Karl Ernst von Baer, b. 1792, d. at Dorpat 1876— one of the most 

 distinguished biologists of the century. He practically founded the 

 modern science of embryology. 



X In the first edition of the Origin, Chap. IX. is on the ' Imperfection of 

 the Geological Record ; ' Chap. X., on the * Geological Succession of 

 Organic Beings ; ' Chaps. XI. and XII., on * Geographical Distribution ; ' 

 Cuap. XIII., on ' Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings ; Morphology ; 

 Embryology; Rudimentary Organs.' 



