since it was written--this would have been bad enough under the
circumstances but that it did occur to him to go out of his way to
say what was not true. There was no necessity for him to have said
anything about my book. It appeared, moreover, inadequate to tell me
that if a reprint of the English Life was wanted (which might or
might not be the case, and if it was not the case, why, a shrug of
the shoulders, and I must make the best of it), Mr. Darwin might
perhaps silently omit his note about my book, as he omitted his
misrepresentation of the author of the "Vestiges of Creation," and
put the words "revised and corrected by the author" on his title-
page.

No matter how high a writer may stand, nor what services he may have
unquestionably rendered, it cannot be for the general well-being that
he should be allowed to set aside the fundamental principles of
straightforwardness and fair play. When I thought of Buffon, of Dr.
Erasmus Darwin, of Lamarck and even of the author of the "Vestiges of
Creation," to all of whom Mr. Darwin had dealt the same measure which
he was now dealing to myself; when I thought of these great men, now
dumb, who had borne the burden and heat of the day, and whose laurels
had been filched from them; of the manner, too, in which Mr. Darwin
had been abetted by those who should have been the first to detect
the fallacy which had misled him; of the hotbed of intrigue which
science has now become; of the disrepute into which we English must
fall as a nation if such practices as Mr. Darwin had attempted in
this case were to be tolerated;--when I thought of all this, I felt
that though prayers for the repose of dead men's souls might be
unavailing, yet a defence of their work and memory, no matter against
what odds, might avail the living, and resolved that I would do my
utmost to make my countrymen aware of the spirit now ruling among