Ch. XIV.] 1861—1871. 255 



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 discussed 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. 



C. D. to C. Lyell. Down, March 6 [1863]. 



... I have been of course deeply interested by your book. * 

 I have hardly any remarks worth pending, but will scribble a 

 little on what most interested me. But I will first get out what 

 I hate saying, viz. that I have been greatly disappointed that 

 you have not given judgment and spoken fairly out what you 

 think about the derivation of species. I should have been 

 contented if you had boldly said that species have not been 

 separately created, and had thrown as much doubt as you like 

 on how far variation and natural selection suffices. I hope to 

 Heaven I am wrong (and from what you say about Whewell it 

 seems so), but I cannot see how your chapters can do more 

 good than an extraordinary able review. I think the Parthenon 

 is right, that you will leave the public in a fog. No doubt 

 they may infer that as you give more space to myself, Wallace, 

 and Hooker, than to Lamarck, you think more of us. But I 

 had always thought that your judgment would have been an 

 epoch in the subject. All that is over with me, and I will only 

 think on the admirable skill with which you have selected the 

 striking points, and explained them. No praise can be too 

 strong, in my opinion, for the inimitable chapter on language 

 in comparison with species. . . . 



I know you will forgive me for writing with perfect freedom, 

 for you must know how deeply I respect you as my old honoured 

 guide and master. I heartily hope and expect that your book 

 will have a gigantic circulation, and may do in many ways as 

 much good as it ought to do. I am tired, so no more. I have 

 written so briefly that you will have to guess my meaning. I 

 fear my remarks are hardly worth sending. Farewell, with 

 kindest remembrance to Lady Lyell, 



Ever yours. 



* The Antiquity of Man. 



