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More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 by Charles Darwin
page 54 of 886 (06%)
one but very little inferior to that of the average members of our learned
societies." This passage is marked in Mr. Darwin's copy with a triply
underlined "No," and with a shower of notes of exclamation. It was
probably the first occasion on which he realised the extent of this great
and striking divergence in opinion between himself and his colleague.

He had, however, some indication of it in Wallace's paper on Man,
"Anthropological Review," 1864. (See Letter 406). He wrote to Lyell, May
4th, 1869, "I was dreadfully disappointed about Man; it seems to me
incredibly strange." And to Mr. Wallace, April 14th, 1869, "If you had not
told me, I should have thought that [your remarks on Man] had been added by
some one else. As you expected, I differ grievously from you, and I am
very sorry for it."


LETTER 409. TO T.H. HUXLEY.
Down, Thursday, February 21st [1868-70?].

I received the Jermyn Street programme, but have hardly yet considered it,
for I was all day on the sofa on Tuesday and Wednesday. Bad though I was,
I thought with constant pleasure of your very great kindness in offering to
read the proofs of my essay on man. I do not know whether I said anything
which might have appeared like a hint, but I assure you that such a thought
had never even momentarily passed through my mind. Your offer has just
made all the difference, that I can now write, whether or no my essay is
ever printed, with a feeling of satisfaction instead of vague dread.

Beg my colleague, Mrs. Huxley, not to forget the corrugator supercilii: it
will not be easy to catch the exact moment when the child is on the point
of crying, and is struggling against the wrinkling up [of] its little eyes;
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