own book; so for God's sake do not abuse your Introduction.


H.C. WATSON TO CHARLES DARWIN.
Thames Ditton, November 21st [1859].

My dear Sir,

Once commenced to read the 'Origin,' I could not rest till I had galloped
through the whole. I shall now begin to re-read it more deliberately.
Meantime I am tempted to write you the first impressions, not doubting that
they will, in the main, be the permanent impressions:--

1st. Your leading idea will assuredly become recognised as an established
truth in science, i.e. "Natural Selection." It has the characteristics of
all great natural truths, clarifying what was obscure, simplifying what was
intricate, adding greatly to previous knowledge. You are the greatest
revolutionist in natural history of this century, if not of all centuries.

2nd. You will perhaps need, in some degree, to limit or modify, possibly
in some degree also to extend, your present applications of the principle
of natural selection. Without going to matters of more detail, it strikes
me that there is one considerable primary inconsistency, by one failure in
the analogy between varieties and species; another by a sort of barrier
assumed for nature on insufficient grounds and arising from "divergence."
These may, however, be faults in my own mind, attributable to yet
incomplete perception of your views. And I had better not trouble you
about them before again reading the volume.

3rd. Now these novel views are brought fairly before the scientific