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Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 by Charles Darwin
page 60 of 703 (08%)

CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER.
December 28th, 1859.

...Have you seen the splendid essay and notice of my book in the "Times"?
(December 26th.) I cannot avoid a strong suspicion that it is by Huxley;
but I never heard that he wrote in the "Times". It will do grand
service,...


C. DARWIN TO T.H. HUXLEY.
Down, December 28th [1859].

My dear Huxley,

Yesterday evening, when I read the "Times" of a previous day, I was amazed
to find a splendid essay and review of me. Who can the author be? I am
intensely curious. It included an eulogium of me which quite touched me,
though I am not vain enough to think it all deserved. The author is a
literary man, and German scholar. He has read my book very attentively;
but, what is very remarkable, it seems that he is a profound naturalist.
He knows my Barnacle-book, and appreciates it too highly. Lastly, he
writes and thinks with quite uncommon force and clearness; and what is even
still rarer, his writing is seasoned with most pleasant wit. We all
laughed heartily over some of the sentences. I was charmed with those
unreasonable mortals, who know anything, all thinking fit to range
themselves on one side. (The reviewer proposes to pass by the orthodox
view, according to which the phenomena of the organic world are "the
immediate product of a creative fiat, and consequently are out of the
domain of science altogether." And he does so "with less hesitation, as it
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