PUBLICATIONS. 89 



member, in the early reviews of the ' Origin,' and I 

 recollect expressing my surprise on this head in a 

 letter to Asa Gray. Within late years several re- 

 viewers have given the whole credit to Fritz Mliller 

 and Hackel, who undoubtedly have worked it out 

 much more fully, and in some respects more cor- 

 rectly than I did. I had materials for a whole chapter 

 on the subject, and I ought to have made the discus- 

 sion longer ; for it is clear that I failed to impress my 

 readers ; and he who succeeds in doing so deserves, 

 in my opinion, all the credit. 



This leads me to remark that I have almost always 

 been treated honestly by my reviewers, passing over 

 those without scientific knowledge as not worthy of 

 notice. My views have often been grossly misrepre- 

 sented, bitterly opposed and ridiculed, but this has 

 been generally done as, I believe, in good faith. On 

 the whole I do not doubt that my works have been 

 over and over again greatly overpraised. I rejoice 

 that I have avoided controversies, and this I owe 

 to Lyell, who many years ago, in reference to my 

 geological works, strongly advised me never to get 

 entangled in a controversy, as it rarely did any good 

 and caused a miserable loss of time and temper. 



Whenever I have found out that I have blundered, 

 or that my work has been imperfect, and when I have 

 been contemptuously criticised, and even when I have 

 been overpraised, so that I have felt mortified, it has 

 been my greatest comfort to say hundreds of times to 

 myself that " I have worked as hard and as well as 

 I could, and no man can do more than this." I 



