(page 97, self-fertilises ITSELF, etc.).

Then your candour is worth everything to your cause. It is refreshing to
find a person with a new theory who frankly confesses that he finds
difficulties, insurmountable, at least for the present. I know some people
who never have any difficulties to speak of.

The moment I understood your premisses, I felt sure you had a real
foundation to hold on. Well, if one admits your premisses, I do not see
how he is to stop short of your conclusions, as a probable hypothesis at
least.

It naturally happens that my review of your book does not exhibit anything
like the full force of the impression the book has made upon me. Under the
circumstances I suppose I do your theory more good here, by bespeaking for
it a fair and favourable consideration, and by standing non-committed as to
its full conclusions, than I should if I announced myself a convert; nor
could I say the latter, with truth.

Well, what seems to me the weakest point in the book is the attempt to
account for the formation of organs, the making of eyes, etc., by natural
selection. Some of this reads quite Lamarckian.

The chapter on HYBRIDISM is not a WEAK, but a STRONG chapter. You have
done wonders there. But still you have not accounted, as you may be held
to account, for divergence up to a certain extent producing increased
fertility of the crosses, but carried one short almost imperceptible step
more, giving rise to sterility, or reversing the tendency. Very likely you
are on the right track; but you have something to do yet in that
department.