124 CHARLES DARWIN. 



With regard to the earlier chapters, which pro- 

 pound the theory of natural selection, his exact 

 words are : 



" As to the first four chapters, I agree thoroughly and fully 

 with all the principles laid down in them. I think you have 

 demonstrated a true cause for the production of species, and 

 have thrown the onus probandi, that species did not arise in 

 the way you suppose, on your adversaries." 



Darwin replied with much warmth, and expressed 

 himself as "Now contented and able to sing my 

 Nunc Dimittis" 



In the Times of December 26th, 1859, appeared 

 a masterly article upon the " Origin," and, after a 

 time, it became known that Huxley was its author. 

 Volume II. of the " Life and Letters " explains the 

 circumstances under which the review was written. 

 The article is reprinted as the first essay ("The 

 Darwinian Hypothesis," I.) in " Darwiniana " (Vol. 

 II. of the "Collected Essays of Professor Huxley," 

 London, 1893). The following quotation (pp. 19, 

 20) shows the attitude he took up with regard to 

 natural selection : 



" That this most ingenious hypothesis enables us to give a 

 reason for many apparent anomalies in the distribution of 

 living beings in time and space, and that it is not contradicted 

 t by tHe main phenomena of life and organisation appear to us 

 to be unquestionable ; and, so far, it must be admitted to have 

 an immense advantage over any of its predecessors. But it 

 is quite another matter to affirm absolutely either the truth or 

 falsehood of Mr. Darwin's views at the present stage of the 

 enquiry. Goethe has an excellent aphorism defining that 



