214 SPREAD OF EVOLUTION. [1864. 



C. Darwin to T. H. Huxley. 



Down, Oct. 3 [1864]. 



My dear Huxley, — If I do not pour out my admiration 

 of your article * on Kolliker, I shall explode. I never read 

 anything better done. I had much wished his article an- 

 swered, and indeed thought of doing so myself, so that I con- 

 sidered several points. You have hit on all, and on some in 

 addition, and oh ! by Jove, how well you have done it. As 

 I read on and came to point after point on which I had 

 thought, I could not help jeering and scoffing at myself, to 

 see how infinitely better you had done it than I could have 

 done. Well, if any one, who does not understand Natural 

 Selection, will read this, he will be a blockhead if it is not as 

 as clear as daylight. Old Flourens \ was hardly worth the 

 powder and shot ; but how capitally you bring in about the 

 Academician, and your metaphor of the sea-sand is inimitable. 



It is a marvel to me how you can resist becoming a regu- 

 lar reviewer. Well, I have exploded now, and it has done 

 me a deal of good. . . . 



[In the same article in the ' Natural History Review,' Mr. 

 Huxley speaks of the book above alluded to by Flourens, the 

 Secretaire Perpetuel of the French Academy, as one of the 

 two "most elaborate criticisms " of the ' Origin of Species ' of 

 the year. He quotes the following passage : — 



" M. Darwin continue: 'Aucune distinction absolue n'a 

 ete et ne peut etre etablie entre les especes et les varietes ! 



* ''Criticisms on the Origin of Species," 'Nat. Hist. Review,' 1864. 

 Republished in 'Lay Sermons,' 1870, p. 328. The work of Professor 

 Kolliker referred to is ' Ueber die Darwin'sche Schopfungstheorie' (Leip- 

 zig, 1864). Toward Professor Kolliker my father felt not only the respect 

 due to so distinguished a naturalist (a sentiment well expressed in Pro- 

 fessor Huxley's review), but he had also a personal regard for him, and 

 often alluded with satisfaction to the visit which Professor Kolliker paid 

 at Down. 



f ' Examen du livre de M. Darwin sur l'origine des especes.' Par P. 

 Flourens. 8vo. Paris, 1864. 



