HUXLEY AND NATURAL SELECTION. 123 



the evidence on which the conclusions rest is supplied 

 in full. 



About a month before the "Origin" was published, 

 Darwin wrote to Professor Huxley asking for the 

 names of foreigners to whom to send his book. 

 This communication is of great interest as being the 

 earliest letter, accessible to the public, which he 

 wrote to Huxley. In it he says : " I shall be in- 

 tensely curious to hear what effect the book produces 

 on you"; but he evidently thought that Huxley would 

 disagree with much in it, and must have been sur- 

 prised as well as gratified at the way in which it 

 was received. In his chapter " On the Reception of 

 the ' Origin of Species ' " (" Life and Letters," Vol. II.), 

 Huxley writes : " My reflection, when I first made 

 myself master of the central idea of the ' Origin,' 

 was, ' How extremely stupid not to have thought 

 of that.' " 



Huxley replied on November 23rd, 1859 the day 

 before the publication of the " Origin " saying that 

 he had finished the book on the previous day. His 

 letter was a complete acceptance of evolution as 

 apart from any theory which may account for it ; 

 and a thorough agreement with natural selection 

 as a "true cause for the production of species." At 

 no time in his life did he state how far he considered 

 natural selection to be a sufficient cause. He was 

 only "prepared to go to the stake, if requisite, in 

 support of" the chapters which marshal the evidence 

 for evolution (ix., and most parts of x., xi., and xii). 



