16 MY LIFE [Chap. 



deeply affect the lives and happiness of the great bulk of the 

 people. It is a great satisfaction that his last letter to me, 

 written within nine months of his death, and terminating a 

 correspondence which had extended over a quarter of a 

 century, should be so cordial, so sympathetic, and broad- 

 minded. 



In 1870 he had written to me, "I hope it is a satisfaction 

 to you to reflect — and very few things in my life have been 

 more satisfactory to me — that we have never felt any jealousy 

 towards each other, though in some sense rivals. I believe 

 I can say this of myself with truth, and I am absolutely sure 

 that it is true of you." The above long letter will show that 

 this friendly feeling was retained by him to the last, and to 

 have thus inspired and retained it, notwithstanding our many 

 differences of opinion, I feel to be one of the greatest honours 

 of my life. I have myself given an estimate of Darwin's work 

 in my " Debt of Science to Darwin," published in my " Natural 

 Selection and Tropical Nature," in 1891. But I cannot here 

 refrain from quoting a passage from Huxley's striking 

 obituary notice in Nature, summing up his work in a single 

 short paragraph : " None have fought better, and none 

 have been more fortunate than Charles Darwin. He found 

 a great truth, trodden underfoot, reviled by bigots, and 

 ridiculed by all the world ; he lived long enough to see it, 

 chiefly by his own efforts, irrefragably established in science, 

 inseparably incorporated with the common thoughts of men, 

 and only hated and feared by those who would revile but 

 dare not. What shall a man desire more than this ? " 



The Chief Differences of Opinion between Darwin and 

 myself. — As this subject is often referred to by objectors to 

 the theory of natural selection, and it is sometimes stated 

 that I have myself given up the most essential parts of that 

 theory, I think it will be advisable to give a short statement 

 of what those differences really are, and how they affect the 

 theory in question. Our only important differences were on 

 four subjects, which may be considered separately. 



1. The Origin of Man as an Intellectual and Moral 



