258 THE SPREAD OF EVOLUTION. [Oh. XIV. 



my father wrote (Athenseum, 1863, p. 554), under the cloak of 

 attacking spontaneous generation, to defend Evolution. In 

 reply, an article appeared in the same Journal (May 2nd, 1863, 

 p. 586), accusing my father of claiming for his views the 

 exclusive merit of " connecting by an intelligible thread of 

 reasoning " a number of facts in morphology, &c. The writer 

 remarks that, "The different generalisations cited by Mr. 

 Darwin as being connected by an intelligible thread of reason- 

 ing exclusively through his attempt to explain specific trans- 

 mutation are in fact related to it in this wise, that they have 

 prepared the minds of naturalists for a better reception of such 

 attempts to explain the way of the origin of species from 

 species." 



To this my father replied as follows in the Athenseum of May 

 9th, 1863:— 



Down, May 5 [1863]. 



I hope that you will grant me space to own that your 

 reviewer is quite correct when he states that any theory of 

 descent will connect, " by an intelligible thread of reasoning," 

 the several generalizations before specified. I ought to have 

 made this admission expressly ; with the reservation, however, 

 that, as far as I can judge, no theory so well explains or connects 

 these several generalizations (more especially the formation of 

 domestic races in comparison with natural species, the principles 

 of classification, embryonic resemblance, &c.) as the theory, or 

 hypothesis, or guess, if the reviewer so likes to call it, of 

 Natural Selection. Nor has any other satisfactory explanation 

 been ever offered of the almost perfect adaptation of all organic 

 beings to each other, and to their physical conditions of life. 

 Whether the naturalist believes in the views given by Lamarck, 

 by Geoffroy St. Hilaire, by the author of the Vestiges, by 

 Mr. Wallace and myself, or in any other such view, signifies 

 extremely little in comparison with the admission that species 

 have descended from other species, and have not been created 

 immutable ; for he who admits this as a great truth has a wide 

 field opened to him for further inquiry. I believe, however, 

 from what I see of the progress of opinion on the Continent, 

 and in this country, that the theory of Natural Selection will 

 ultimately be adopted, with, no doubt, many subordinate 

 modifications and improvements. 



Charles Daewin. 



In the following, he refers to the above letter to the 

 Athenseum : — 



