612 ' ORIGIN ' AND * TASMANIAN FLORA ' 
dogs before you revealed Nat. Selection, what d— d ignorant 
ones we must surely be now we do know that law.i 
The reviews of the * Origin' were for the most part consistent 
in passing over the strongest Hnes of the argument, and either 
fixing solely on the confessed difficulties or making simple 
appeals to prejudice. Reasoned opposition was worthy of re- 
spect, and could be met with argument ; but such effusions as 
Dr. Haughton's ^ address to the Geological Society of DubHn on 
Darwin and Wallace's papers evoked the exclamation to Harvey 
(May 27, 1860), ' What a conceited puppy H. must be and how 
deplorably ignorant of the first principles of Natural Science, 
to see nothing in the papers, let them be ever so wrong.' And 
later, * it will do Haughton a lot of mischief.' 
Again (March 24, 1860) : 
What a splutter and mess W^hateley is making about 
Darwin's book in the Sjpectator ; he is bent on Tvddening the 
breach between science and rehgion. To me such exhibi- 
tions of fatuous prejudice are truly melancholy. What 
will be thought of them 50 years hence ! 
Against the attacks made at Cambridge, especially the 
impetuous assault of Sedgwick, full of odium theologicum, a 
firm stand was made by Henslow, as described in his letter 
which follows : 
7 Downing Terrace, C?mbridge : May 10, 1860. 
My dear Joseph, — I don't know whether you care to 
hear Phillips, who dehvers the Rede Lecture in the Senate 
House next Tuesday at 2 p.m. It is understood that he 
means to attack the Darwinian hypothesis of Natural 
Selection. 
Sedgwick's address last Monday was temperate enough 
for his usual mode of attack, but strong enough to cast a 
^ Cp. further letters of 1862 : C. D. to J. D. H. (November 20, 1862), 
M.L. i. 212 ; and December 12, 1862, M.L. i. 222. 
2 The Rev. Samuel Haughton (1821-97) was a Fellow of Trinity College, 
Dublin, and from 1851-81 Professor of Geology in Dublin University ; specially 
distinguished for his work in mathematical physics, and later in Animal 
Mechanics (publ. 1873), the outcome of his bold step in entering the medical 
school as a student when he was thirty-eight, in order to equip himself with 
anatomical knowledge for dealing with fossils. His vehement opposition to 
evolutionary doctrine no doubt sprang from his religious views. 
