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whole, it leaves the impression on our minds that we have been reading
an ingenious academical thesis, rather than a work of demonstration by
an original writer...There is no argument in it, and only a few facts
which have not been stated elsewhere by Sir C. Lyell himself or by
others" (loc. cit., page 294).), in which, I suppose, you are cut up.
LETTER 172. TO H. FALCONER. December 26th [1863].
Thank you for telling me about the Pliocene mammal, which is very
remarkable; but has not Owen stated that the Pliocene badger is
identical with the recent? Such a case does indeed well show the
stupendous duration of the same form. I have not heard of Suess'
pamphlet (172/1. Probably Suess's paper "Ueber die Verschiedenheit und
die Aufeinanderfolge der tertiaren Land-faunen in der Niederung von
Wien." "Sitz.-Ber. Wien Akad." XLVII., page 306, 1863.), and should much
like to learn the title, if it can be procured; but I am on different
subjects just at present. I should rather like to see it rendered
highly probable that the process of formation of a new species was short
compared to its duration--that is, if the process was allowed to be
slow and long; the idea is new to me. Heer's view that new species are
suddenly formed like monsters, I feel a conviction from many reasons is
false.
CHAPTER 1.IV.--EVOLUTION, 1864-1869.
LETTER 173. TO A.R. WALLACE. Down, January 1st, 1864.
I am still unable to write otherwise than by dictation. In a letter
received two or three weeks ago from Asa Gray he writes: "I read lately
with gusto Wallace's expose of the Dublin man on Bees' cells, etc."
(173/1. "Remarks on the Rev. S. Haughton's paper on the Bee's Cell and
on the Origin of Species" ("Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist." XII., 1863, page
303). Prof. Haughton's paper was read before the Natural History Society
of Dublin, November 21st, 1862, and reprinted in the "Ann. and Mag.
Nat. Hist." XI., 1863, page 415. See Letters 73, 74, 75.) Now, though
I cannot read at present, I much want to know where this is published,
that I may procure a copy. Further on, Asa Gray says (after speaking of
Agassiz's paper on Glaciers in the "Atlantic Magazine" and his
recent book entitled "Method of Study"): "Pray set Wallace upon these
articles." So Asa Gray seems to think much of your powers of reviewing,
and I mention this as it assuredly is laudari a laudato. I hope you are
hard at work, and if you are inclined to tell me, I should much like to
know what you are doing. It will be many months, I fear, before I shall
do anything.
LETTER 174. TO J.L.A. DE QUATREFAGES. Down, March 27th [1864?].
I had heard that your work was to be translated, and I heard it with
pleasure; but I can take no share of credit, for I am not an active,
only an honorary member of the Society. Since writing I have finished
with extreme interest to the end your admirable work on metamorphosis.
(174/1. Probably "Metamorphoses of Man and the Lower Animals."
Translated by H. Lawson, 1864.) How well you are acquainted with the
works of English naturalists, and how generously you bestow honour on
them! Mr. Lubbock is my neighbour, and I have known him since he was a
little boy; he is in every way a thoroughly good man; as is my friend
Huxley. It gave me real pleasure to see you notice their works as you
have done.
LETTER 175. TO T.H. HUXLEY. Down, April 11th [1864].
I am very much obliged for your present of your "Comp. Anatomy." (175/1.
"Lectures on the Elements of Comparative Anatomy," 1864.) When strong
enough I am sure I shall read it with greatest interest. I could not
resist the last chapter, of which I have read a part, and have been much
interested about the "inspired idiot." (175/2. In reference to Oken
(op. cit., page 282) Huxley says: "I must confess I never read his works
without thinking of the epithet of 'inspired idiot' applied to our own
Goldsmith.") If Owen wrote the article "Oken" (175/3. The article on
Oken in the eighth edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" is signed
"R.O.": Huxley wrote to Darwin (April 18th, 1864), "There is not the
smallest question that Owen wrote both the article 'Oken' and the
'Archetype' Book" (Huxley's "Life," I., page 250). Mr. Huxley's
statements amount to this: (1) Prof. Owen accuses Goethe of having in
1820 appropriated Oken's theory of the skull, and of having given an
apocryphal account of how the idea occurred to himself in 1790. (2) in
the same article, page 502, Owen stated it to be questionable whether
the discoverer of the true theory of the segmental constitution of
the skull (i.e. himself) was excited to his labours, or "in any way
influenced by the a priori guesses of Oken." On this Huxley writes, page
288: "But if he himself had not been in any way influenced by Oken, and
if the 'Programm' [of Oken] is a mere mass of 'a priori guesses,' how
comes it that only three years before Mr. Owen could write thus? 'Oken,
ce genie profond et penetrant, fut le premier qui entrevit la verite,
guide par l'heureuse idee de l'arrangement des os craniens en segments,
comme ceux du rachis, appeles vertebres...'" Later on Owen wrote:
"Cela servira pour exemple d'une examen scrupuleux des faits, d'une
appreciation philosophique de leurs relations et analogies, etc." (From
"Principes d'Osteologie comparee, ou Recherches sur l'Archetype," etc.,
pages 155, 1855). (3) Finally Huxley says, page 289, plainly: "The fact
is that, so far from not having been 'in any way influenced' by Oken,
Prof. Owen's own contributions to this question are the merest Okenism,
remanie.") and the French work on the Archetype (points you do not put
quite clearly), he never did a baser act...You are so good a Christian
that you will hardly understand how I chuckle over this bit of baseness.
I hope you keep well and hearty; I honour your wisdom at giving up at
present Society for Science. But, on the other hand, I feel it in myself
possible to get to care too much for Natural Science and too little for
other things. I am getting better, I almost dare to hope permanently;
for my sickness is decidedly less--for twenty-seven days consecutively I
was sick many times daily, and lately I was five days free. I long to do
a little work again. The magnificent (by far the most magnificent, and
too magnificent) compliment which you paid me at the end of your "Origin
of Species" (175/4. A title applied to the "Lectures to Working Men,"
that "green little book" referred to in Letter 156. Speaking of Mr.
Darwin's work he says (page 156): "I believe that if you strip it of its
theoretical part, it still remains one of the greatest encyclopaedias of
biological doctrine that any one man ever brought forth; and I believe
that, if you take it as the embodiment of an hypothesis, it is destined
to be the guide of biological and psychological speculation for the next
three or four generations.') I have met with reprinted from you two or
three times lately.
LETTER 175A. TO ERASMUS DARWIN. Down, June 30th, 1864.
(175A.1. The preceding |