240 PUBLICATION OF THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' [1859. 



He said to the effect that my explanation was the best 

 ever published of the manner of formation of species. I said 

 I was very glad to hear it. He took me up short : " You must 

 not at all suppose that I agree with you in all respects." I 

 said I thought it no more likely that I should be right in 

 nearly all points, than that I should toss up a penny and get 

 heads twenty times running. I asked him what he thought 

 the weakest part. He said he had no particular objection to 

 any part. He added : 



" If I must criticise, I should say, we do not want to know 

 what Darwin believes and is convinced of, but what he can 

 prove." I agreed most fully and truly that I have probably 

 greatly sinned in this line, and defended my general line of 

 argument of inventing a theory and seeing how many classes 

 of facts the theory would explain. I added that I would en- 

 deavour to modify the " believes " and " convinceds." He took 

 me up short : "You will then spoil your book, the charm of (!) 

 it is that it is Darwin himself." He added another objec- 

 tion, that the book was too teres atque rotundus that it ex- 

 plained everything, and that it was improbable in the highest 

 degree that I should succeed in this. I quite agree with this 

 rather queer objection, and it comes to this that my book 

 must be very bad or very good. . . . 



I have heard, by a roundabout channel, that Herschel says 

 my book " is the law of higgledy-piggledy." What this 

 exactly means I do not know, but it is evidently very 

 contemptuous. If true this is a great blow and discourage- 

 ment. 



C. Darwin to JoJm Lubbock. 



December I4th [1859]. 



. . . The latter part of my stay at Ilkley did me much 

 good, but I suppose I never shall be strong, for the work 

 I have had since I came back has knocked me up a little 



