One part of your note has pleased me so much that I must thank you for it.
Not only Sir H.H. [Holland], but several others, have attacked me about
analogy leading to belief in one primordial CREATED form. ('Origin,'
edition i. page 484.--"Therefore I should infer from analogy that probably
all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended
from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed.") (By
which I mean only that we know nothing as yet [of] how life originates.) I
thought I was universally condemned on this head. But I answered that
though perhaps it would have been more prudent not to have put it in, I
would not strike it out, as it seemed to me probable, and I give it on no
other grounds. You will see in your mind the kind of arguments which made
me think it probable, and no one fact had so great an effect on me as your
most curious remarks on the apparent homologies of the head of Vertebrata
and Articulata.

You have done a real good turn in the Agency business ("My General Agent"
was a sobriquet applied at this time by my father to Mr. Huxley.) (I never
before heard of a hard-working, unpaid agent besides yourself), in talking
with Sir H.H., for he will have great influence over many. He floored me
from my ignorance about the bones of the ear, and I made a mental note to
ask you what the facts were.

With hearty thanks and real admiration for your generous zeal for the
subject.

Yours most truly,
C. DARWIN.

You may smile about the care and precautions I have taken about my ugly MS.