50 Unconscious Memory 



At first I thought I ought to continue the correspondence 

 privately with Mr. Darwin, and explain to him that his 

 letter was insufficient, but on reflection I felt that little 

 good was likely to come of a second letter, if what I had 

 already written was not enough. I therefore wrote to 

 the AthencBum and gave a condensed account of the facts 

 contained in the last ten or a dozen pages. My letter 

 appeared January 31, 1880. ^ 



The accusation was a very grave one ; it was made in 

 a very public place. I gave my name ; I adduced the 

 strongest prima facie grounds for the acceptance of my 

 statements ; but there was no rejoinder, and for the best 

 of all reasons — that no rejoinder was possible. Besides, 

 what is the good of having a reputation for candour if one 

 may not stand upon it at a pinch ? I never yet knew a 

 person with an especial reputation for candour without 

 finding sooner or later that he had developed it as animals 

 develop their organs, through " sense of need." Not only 

 did Mr. Darwin remain perfectly quiet, but all reviewers 

 and litterateurs remained perfectly quiet also. It seemed 

 — though I do not for a moment believe that this is so — 

 as if public opinion rather approved of what Mr. Darwin 

 had done, and of his silence than otherwise. I saw the 

 " Life of Erasmus Darwin " more frequently and more 

 prominently advertised now than I had seen it hitherto — 

 perhaps in the hope of selling off the adulterated copies, 

 and being able to reprint the work with a corrected title- 

 page. Presently I saw Professor Huxley hastening to the 

 rescue with his lecture on the coming of age of the " Origin 

 of Species," and by May it was easy for Professor Ray 

 Lankester to imply that Mr. Darwin was the greatest of 

 living men. I have since noticed two or three other 

 controversies raging in the Athenceum and Times ; in each 

 of these cases I saw it assumed that the defeated party, 

 when proved to have publicly misrepresented his adversary, 

 should do his best to correct in public the injury which 

 ' See Appendix A. 



