358 



SPREAD OF EVOLUTION. 



[1861. 



The present series of letters will, therefore, include only 

 the progress of his works in the direction of a general 

 amplification of the ' Origin of Species ' e.g., the publication 

 of 'Animals and Plants/ 'Descent of Man,' &c.] 



C. Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



Down, Jan. 15 [1861]. 

 MY DEAR HOOKER, The sight of your handwriting always 



rejoices the very cockles of my heart 



I most fully agree to what you say about Huxley's Article,* 



and the power of writing The whole review seems to 



me excellent. How capitally Oliver has done the resume 

 of botanical books. Good Heavens, how he must have 

 read! . 



I quite agree that Phillips t is unreadably dull. 

 not attempt Bree. \ . . . . 



You need 



* ' Natural History Review,' 1861, 

 p. 67, " On the Zoological Relations 

 of Man with the Lower Animals." 

 This memoir had its origin in a 

 discussion at the previous meeting 

 of the British Association, when 

 Professor Huxley felt himself" com- 

 pelled to give a diametrical contra- 

 diction to certain assertions respect- 

 ing the differences which obtain 

 between the brains of the higher 

 apes and of man, which fell from 

 Professor Owen." But in order 

 that his criticisms might refer to 

 deliberately recorded words, he 

 bases them on Professor Owen's 

 paper, " On the Characters, &c., of 

 the Class Mammalia," read before 

 the Linnean Society in February 

 and April, 1857, in which he pro- 

 posed to place man not only in a 

 distinct order, but in "a distinct 

 sub-class of the Mammalia" the 

 Archencephala. 



f ' Life on the Earth' (1860), by 



Prof. Phillips, containing the sub- 

 stance of the Rede Lecture (May 

 1860). 



J The following sentence (p. 16) 

 from ' Species not Transmutable,' 

 by Dr. Bree, illustrates the degree in 

 which he understood the ' Origin of 

 Species ': " The only real difference 

 between Mr. Darwin and his two 

 predecessors" [Lamarck and the 

 ' Vestiges '] " is this : that while 

 the latter have each given a mode 

 by which they conceive the great 

 changes they believe in have been 

 brought about, Mr. Darwin does no 

 such thing." After this we need 

 not be surprised at a passage in 

 the preface : " No one has derived 

 greater pleasure than I have in past 

 days from the study of Mr. Darwin's 

 other works, and no one has felt a 

 greater degree of regret that he 

 should have imperilled his fame by 

 the publication of his treatise upon 

 the ' Origin of Species.' " 



