1 859.] PROGRESS OF OPINION. 237 



" at least such parts as he could understand." He sent me 

 some notes and suggestions (quite unimportant), and they 

 show me that I have unavoidably done harm to the subject, 

 by publishing an abstract. He is a real Pallasian ; nearly all 

 our domestic races descended from a multitude of wild species 

 now commingled. I expected Murchison to be outrageous. 

 How little he could ever have grappled with the subject 

 of denudation ! How singular so great a geologist should 

 have so unphilosophical a mind ! I have had several notes 



from , very civil and less decided. Says he shall not 



pronounce against me without much reflection, perhaps will 

 say nothing on the subject. X. says he will go to that part 

 of hell, which Dante tells us is appointed for those who are 

 neither on God's side nor on that of the devil. 



I fully believe that I owe the comfort of the next few years 

 of my life to your generous support, and that of a very few 

 others. I do not think I am brave enough to have stood 

 being odious without support ; now I feel as bold as a lion. 

 But there is one thing I can see I must learn, viz. to think 

 less of myself and my book. Farewell, with cordial thanks, 



Yours most truly, 



C. DARWIN. 



I return home on the 7th, and shall sleep at Erasmus's. I 

 will call on you about ten o'clock, on Thursday, the 8th, and sit 

 with you, as I have so often sat, during your breakfast. 



[In December there appeared in ' Macmillan's Magazine' 

 an article, "Time and Life," by Professor Huxley. It is 

 mainly occupied by an analysis of the argument of the 

 ' Origin,' but it also gives the substance of a lecture deliver- 

 ed at the Royal Institution before that book was published. 

 Professor Huxley spoke strongly in favour of evolution in his 

 Lecture, and explains that in so doing he was to a great 

 extent resting on a knowledge of " the general tenor of the 

 researches in which Mr. Darwin had been so long engaged," 



