"You could not possibly have told me anything which would have given me more satisfaction than what you say about Mr. Mill's opinion. Until your review appeared I began to think that perhaps I did not understand at all how to reason scientifically." 1

THE MATURITY OF THE ORIGIN CONTRASTED WITH THE CRUDITY OF RIVAL INTERPRETATIONS

It is remarkable to contrast the maturity, the balance, the judgment, with which Darwin put forward his views, with the rash and haphazard objections and rival suggestions advanced by his critics. It is doubtful whether so striking a contrast is to be found in the history of science;on the one side twenty years of thought and investigation pursued by the greatest of naturalists, on the other offhand impressions upon a most complex problem hastily studied and usually very imperfectly understood. It is not to be wondered at that Darwin found the early criticisms so entirely worthless. The following extract from an interesting letter to John Scott, written on December 3, 1862, shows how well aware he was of difficulties unnoticed by critics:

2

"You speak of difficulties on Natural Selection: there are indeed plenty; if ever you have spare time (which is not likely, as I am sure you must be a hard worker) I should be very glad to hear difficulties from one who has observed so much as you have. The major1 More Letters, I, p. 189. More Letters, II, p. 311.

ity of criticisms on the Origin are, in my opinion, not worth the paper they are printed on."

From the very first the most extraordinarily crude and ill-considered suggestions were put forward by those who were unable to recognize the value of the theory of Natural Selection. A good example is to be found in Andrew Murray's principle of a sexual selection based on contrast," the effort of nature to preserve the typical medium of the race." 1 And even in these later years the wildest imaginings may be put forward in all seriousness as the interpretation of the world of living organisms. Thus in Beccari's interesting work on Borneo," the author compares the infancy and growth of the organic world with the development and education of an individual. In youth the individual learns easily, being unimpeded by the force of habits, while "with age heredity acts more strongly, instincts prevail, and adaptation to new conditions of existence and to new ideas becomes more difficult; in a word, it is much less easy to combat hereditary tendencies." Similarly in the state of maturity now reached by the organic world Beccari believes that the power of adaptation is well-nigh non-existent. Heredity, through long accumulation in the course of endless generations, has become so powerful that species are now stereotyped and cannot undergo advantageous changes.

1

Life and Letters, II, p. 261.

Wanderings in the Great Forests of Borneo, London, 1904. English translation, pp. 209-16.

For the same reason acquired characters cannot now be transmitted to offspring. Beccari imagines that everything was different in early ages when, as he supposes, life was young and heredity weak. In this assumed " Plasmatic Epoch " the environment acted strongly upon organisms, evoking the responsive changes which have now been rendered fixed and immovable by heredity.

Even the hypothesis proposed as a substitute for Natural Selection by so distinguished a botanist as Carl Nägeli turns out to be most unsatisfactory the moment it is examined. The idea of evolution under the compulsion of an internal force residing in the idioplasm is in essence but little removed from special creation. On the subject of Nägeli's criticisms Darwin wrote,1 August 10, 1869, to Lord Farrer:

"It is to me delightful to see what appears a mere morphological character found to be of use. It pleases me the more as Carl Nägeli has lately been pitching into me on this head. Hooker, with whom I discussed the subject, maintained that uses would be found for lots more structures, and cheered me by throwing my own orchids into my teeth."

DARWIN'S GREATEST FRIENDS IN THE TIME OF STRESS

2

It is interesting to put side by side passages from two letters written by Darwin to Hooker, one in 1845 at the beginning of their friendship,

1 More Letters, II, p. 380.

2 L. c., I, p. 39. The passages here quoted are put side by side by the editors of this work.

the other thirty-six years later, a few months before Darwin's death. The first shows the instant growth of their friendship: "Farewell! What a good thing is community of tastes! I feel as if I had known you for fifty years. Adios."

The second letter expresses at the end of Darwin's life the same feelings which find utterance ever and again throughout the long years of his friendship.

"Your letter has cheered me, and the world does not look a quarter so black this morning as it did when I wrote before. Your friendly words are worth their weight in gold."

The friendship with Asa Gray began with a meeting at Kew some years before the publication of Natural Selection. Darwin soon began to ask for help in the work, which was ultimately to appear as the Origin. The following letter to Hooker, June 10, 1855, shows what he thought of the great American botanist:

"I have written him a very long letter, telling him some of the points about which I should feel curious. But on my life it is sublimely ridiculous, my making suggestions to such a man." 1

The friendship ripened very quickly, so that on July 20, 1856, Darwin gave Asa Gray an account of his views on evolution, and on September 5 of the following year a tolerably full description

2

3

1 More Letters, I, p. 418. Asa Gray's generous reply is printed on p. 421.

2

Life and Letters, II, p. 78.

* L. c., pp. 119, 120.

of Natural Selection. From this latter letter Darwin chose the extracts which formed part of his section of the joint essay published July 1,

1858.

Asa Gray's opinion on first reading the Origin was expressed not to Darwin but to Hooker in a letter written January 5, 1860:

"It is done in a masterly manner. It might well have taken twenty years to produce it. It is crammed full of most interesting matter-thoroughly digested— well expressed-close, cogent, and taken as a system it makes out a better case than I had supposed possible..

After attending to Agassiz's unfavorable opinion of his book, he continues: "Tell Darwin all this. I will write to him when I get a chance. As I have promised, he and you shall have fair play here. A little later, when on January 23, he wrote to Darwin himself, Asa Gray concluded: "I am free to say that I never learnt so much from one book as I have from yours.'

99 2

It is impossible to do justice on the present occasion to the numerous letters in which Darwin expressed his gratitude for the splendid manner in which Asa Gray kept his word and "fought like a hero in defense." 3 At a time when few naturalists were able to understand the drift of Darwin's argument, the acute and penetrating mind of Asa Gray had in a moment mastered every detail. Thus Darwin wrote on July 22, 'Life and Letters, II, p. 268.

2 L. c., p. 272.

3 L. c., p. 310.