Ch. XIV.] 1861—1871. 265 



Your boldness, however, sometimes makes me tremble, but as 

 Huxley remarked, some one must be bold enough to make a 

 beginning in drawing up tables of descent. Although you fully 

 admit the imperfection of the geological record, yet Huxley 

 agreed with me in thinking that you are sometimes rather rash 

 in venturing to say at what periods the several groups first 

 appeared. I have this advantage over you, that I remember 

 how wonderfully different any statement on this subject made 

 20 years ago, would have been to what would now be the case, 

 and I expect the next 20 years will make quite as great a 

 difference." 



The following extract from a letter to Professor W. Preyer, a 

 well-known physiologist, shows that he estimated at its true 

 value the help he was to receive from the scientific workers of 

 Germany : — 



March 31, 1868. 



.... I am delighted to hear that you uphold the doctrine 

 of the Modification of Species, and defend my views. The 

 support which I receive from Germany is my chief ground 

 for hoping that our views will ultimately prevail. To the 

 present day I am continually abused or treated with contempt 

 by writers of my own country ; but the younger naturalists 

 are almost all on my side, and sooner or later the public 

 must follow those who make the subject their special study. 

 The abuse and contempt of ignorant writers hurts me very 

 little. . . . 



I must now pass on to the publication, in 1868, of his book 

 on The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. 

 It was begun two days after the appearance of the second edition 

 of the Origin, on Jan. 9, 1860, and it may, I think, be reckoned 

 that about half of the eight years that elapsed between its com- 

 mencement and completion was spent on it. The book did not 

 escape adverse criticism: it was said, for instance, that the 

 public had been patiently waiting for Mr. Darwin's pieces 

 justicatives, and that after eight years of expectation, all they 

 got was a mass of detail about pigeons, rabbits and silk- 

 worms. But the true critics welcomed it as an expansion with 

 unrivalled wealth of illustration of a section of the Origin. 

 "Variation under the influence of man was the only subject 

 (except the question of man's origin) which he was able to deal 

 with in detail so as to utilise his full stores of knowledge. 

 When we remember how important for his argument is a know- 



