228 ORIGIN OF SPECIES. [Ch. XIII. 



it ; I wish I could quite agree with him. Baden Powell says 

 he never read anything so conclusive as my statement about 

 the eye ! ! A stranger writes to me about sexual selection, 

 and regrets that I boggle about such a trifle as the brush of 

 hair on the male turkey, and so on. As L. Jenyns has a 

 really philosophical mind, and as you say you like to see 

 everything, I send an old letter of his. In a later letter to 

 Henslow, which I have seen, he is more candid than any 

 opposer I have heard of, for he says, though he cannot go so 

 far as I do, yet he can give no good reason why he should not. 

 It is funny how each man draws his own imaginary line at 

 which to halt. It reminds me so vividly [of] what I was told * 

 about you when I first commenced geology — to believe a little, 

 but on no account to believe alL 



Ever yours affectionately. 



With regard to the attitude of the more liberal representa- 

 tives of the Church, the following letter from Charles Kingsloy 

 is of interest : 



C. Kingsley to C. Darwin. Eversley Rectory, Winchfield, 

 November 18th, 1859. 



Dear Sir, — I have to thank you for the unexpected honour 

 of your book. That the Naturalist whom, of all naturalists 

 living, I most wish to know and to learn from, should have 

 sent a scientist like me his book, encourages me at least to 

 observe more carefully, and think more slowly. 



I am so poorly (in brain), that I fear I cannot read your 

 book just now as I ought. All I have seen of it awes me ; both 

 with the heap of facts and the prestige of your name, and also 

 with the clear intuition, that if you be right, I must give up 

 much that I have believed and written. 



In that I care little. Let God be true, and every man a liar! 

 Let us know what is, and, as old Socrates has it, l-medai t<3 Aoyo> 

 — follow up the villainous shifty fox of an argument, into what- 

 soever unexpected bogs and brakes he may lead us, if we do 

 but run into him at last. 

 I From two common superstitions, at least, I shall be free 

 while judging of your book : — 



(1.) I have long since, from watching the crossing of 

 domesticated animals and plants, learnt to disbelieve the 

 dogma of the permanence of species. 



* By Professor Henslow. 



