unphilosophical a mind! I have had several notes from --, very civil and
less decided. Says he shall not pronounce against me without much
reflection, PERHAPS WILL SAY NOTHING on the subject. X. says -- will go to
that part of hell, which Dante tells us is appointed for those who are
neither on God's side nor on that of the devil.

I fully believe that I owe the comfort of the next few years of my life to
your generous support, and that of a very few others. I do not think I am
brave enough to have stood being odious without support; now I feel as bold
as a lion. But there is one thing I can see I must learn, viz., to think
less of myself and my book. Farewell, with cordial thanks.

Yours most truly,
C. DARWIN.

I return home on the 7th, and shall sleep at Erasmus's. I will call on you
about ten o'clock, on Thursday, the 8th, and sit with you, as I have so
often sat, during your breakfast.

I wish there was any chance of Prestwich being shaken; but I fear he is too
much of a catastrophist.


[In December there appeared in 'Macmillan's Magazine' an article, "Time and
Life," by Professor Huxley. It is mainly occupied by an analysis of the
argument of the 'Origin,' but it also gives the substance of a lecture
delivered at the Royal Institution before that book was published.
Professor Huxley spoke strongly in favour of evolution in his Lecture, and
explains that in so doing he was to a great extent resting on a knowledge
of "the general tenor of the researches in which Mr. Darwin had been so