234 ORIGIN OF SPECIES. [Oh. XIII. 



(if I do not hear to the contrary) call about a quarter before ten 

 on Sunday morning, and sit with you at breakfast, but will not 

 sit long, and so take up much of your time. I must say one 

 more word about our quasi-theological controversy about 

 natural selection, and let me have your opinion when we meet 

 in London. Do you consider that the successive variations in 

 the size of the crop of the Pouter Pigeon, which man has accu- 

 mulated to please his caprice, have been due to " the creative 

 and sustaining powers of Brahma?" In the sense that an 

 omnipotent and omniscient Deity must order and know every- 

 thing, this must be admitted ; yet, in honest truth, I can hardly 

 admit it. It seems preposterous that a maker of a universe 

 should care about the crop of a pigeon solely to please man's 

 silly fancies. But if you agree with me in thinking such an 

 interposition of the Deity uncalled for, I can see no reason 

 whatever for believing in such interpositions in the case of 

 natural beings, in which strange aDd admirable peculiarities 

 have been naturally selected for the creature's own benefit. 

 Imagine a Pouter in a state of nature wading into the water 

 and then, being buoyed up by its inflated crop, sailing about in 

 search of food. What admiration this would have excited — 

 adaptation to the laws of hydrostatic pressure, &c. &c. For 

 the life of me, I cannot see any difficulty in natural selection 

 producing the most exquisite structure, if such structure can be 

 arrived at by gradation, and I know from experience how hard 

 it is to name any structure towards which at least some 

 gradations are not known. 



Ever yours. 



P.S. — The conclusion at which I have come, as I have told 

 Asa Gray, is that such a question, as is touched on in this note, 

 is beyond the human intellect, like " predestination and free 

 will," or the " origin of evil." 



C. J), to J. D. Hooker, Down [May 15th, I860]. 



. . . How paltry it is in such men as X., Y. and Co. 



not reading your essay. It is incredibly paltry. They may 

 all attack me to their hearts' content. I am got case-hardened. 

 As for the old fogies in Cambridge,* it really signifies 

 nothing. I look at their attacks as a proof that our work is 



* This refers to a " savage onslaught " on the Origin by Sedgwick at 

 the Cambridge Philosophical Society. Henslow defended his old pupil, 

 and maintained that " the subject was a legitimate one for investigation." 



