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Darwin Correspondence Project

From T. H. Huxley   17 March 1869

Geological Survey of England & Wales

My dear Darwin

After I had sent my letter to you the other day I thought how stupid I had been not to put in a slip of paper to say it was meant for Lushington’s edification.1

I made sure you would understand that I wished it to be sent on & wrote it (standing on the points of my toes & with my tail up very stiff with that end in view2 diagram

I am getting so weary of people writing to propose controversy to me upon one point or other, that I begin to wish the article had never been written   The fighting in itself is not particularly objectionable but its the wasting time

I begin to understand your sufferings over the ‘Origin’—3 A good book is comparable to a piece of meat & fools are as flies, who swarm to it, each for the purpose of depositing & hatching his own particular maggot of an idea

Ever yours | T. H. Huxley

March 17. 1869

Footnotes

CD wrote his own letter to Lushington rather than simply passing on Huxley’s letter of 11 March 1869 (see letter to Vernon Lushington, [12 March 1869], and letter to T. H. Huxley, 12 March [1869]).
Origin.

Summary

Last letter was written to be passed on for Lushington’s edification. "(Standing on the points of my toes and my tail very stiff)." Is tiring of controversy as a waste of time. Begins to understand CD’s sufferings over Origin.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-6665
From
Thomas Henry Huxley
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Geological Survey
Source of text
DAR 166: 318
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6665,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6665.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 17

letter