10 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



"Life and Letters" (iii. p. 134), but I will quote two short 

 passages expressing his kind feelings towards myself. He 

 begins, " Your note has given me very great pleasure, chiefly 

 because I was so anxious not to treat you with the least dis- 

 respect, and it is so difficult to speak fairly when differing 

 from any one. If I had offended you, it would have grieved 

 me more than you will readily believe." And the conclusion 

 is, " Forgive me for scribbling at such length. You have put 

 me quite in good spirits ; I did so dread having been unin- 

 tentionally unfair towards your views. I hope earnestly the 

 second volume will escape as well. I care now very little 

 what others say. As for our not agreeing, really, in such 

 complex subjects, it is almost impossible for two men who 

 arrive independently at their conclusions to agree fully ; it 

 would be unnatural for them to do so." 



I reviewed " The Descent," in The Academy^ early in 

 March, and Darwin wrote to me on the i6th, expressing his 

 gratification at its whole tone and matter, and then, referring 

 to the differences between us, making what was then a good 

 point against me — that my objections to sexual selection 

 having produced certain results in man, had not much force 

 if, as he believed, I admitted that the plumes of the birds of 

 paradise had been thus gained. At that time, though I had 

 begun to doubt, I had not definitely rejected the whole of 

 that part of " sexual selection " depending on female pre- 

 ference for certain colours and ornaments. 



On July 9, 1 87 1, he wrote me a long letter, chiefly about 

 Mr. Mivart's criticisms and accusations in his book on " The 

 Genesis of Species," and again in a severe article in the 

 Quarterly Review. These he proposed replying to in a new 

 edition of the " Origin," but the incident worried him a good 

 deal. In a postscript he says, " I quite agree with what you 

 say, that Mivart fully intends to be honourable, but he seems 

 to me to have the mind of a most able lawyer retained to 

 plead against us, and especially against me. God knows 

 whether my strength and spirit will last out to write a chapter 

 versus Mivart and others ; I do so hate controversy, and feel 

 I shall do it so badly." 



