1S63.] 'ANTIQUITY OF MAN.' 1 93 



I have read Lyell's book. ['The Antiquity of Man.'] 

 The whole certainty struck me as a compilation, but of the 

 highest class, for when possible the facts have been verified 

 on the spot, making it almost an original work. The Glacial 

 chapters seem to me best, and in parts magnificent. I could 

 hardly judge about Man, as all the gloss of novelty was com- 

 pletely worn off. But certainly the aggregation of the evi- 

 dence produced a very striking effect on my mind. The 

 chapter comparing language and changes of species, seems 

 most ingenious and interesting. He has shown great skill in 

 picking out salient points in the argument for change of 

 species ; but I am deeply disappointed (I do not mean per- 

 sonally) to find that his timidity prevents him giving any 

 judgment. . . . From all my communications with him I 

 must ever think that he has really entirely lost faith in the 

 immutability of species ; and yet one of his strongest sen- 

 tences is nearly as follows : "If it should ever* be rendered 

 highly probable that species change by variation and natural 

 selection," &c, &c. I had hoped he would have guided the 

 public as far as his own belief went. . . . One thing does 

 please me on this subject, that he seems to appreciate your 

 work. No doubt the public or a part may be induced to 

 think that as he gives to us a larger space than to Lamarck, 

 he must think there is something in our views. When read- 

 ing the brain chapter, it struck me forcibly that if he had 

 said openly that he believed in change of species, and as a 

 consequence that man was derived from some Quadruma- 

 nous animal, it would have been very proper to have dis- 

 cussed by compilation the differences in the most important 

 organ, viz. the brain. As it is, the chapter seems to me to 

 come in rather by the head and shoulders. I do not think 

 (but then I am as prejudiced as Falconer and Huxley, or 



1862, quoted in ' Man's Place in Nature,' p. 117) spoke of the " two years 

 during which this preposterous controversy has dragged its weary length." 

 And this no doubt expressed a very general feeling. 

 * The italics are not Lyell's. 

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