To T. H. Huxley 24 December [1874]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Dec. 24th
My dear Huxley
Your letter to Mivart is a tremendous reproof to him.2 (I have read it again, it is tremendous.) As he now owns that he has thought himself for some time in the wrong, it makes his miserable shabby equivocating rejoinder worse.3 I have forwarded your note to me & copy of note to Mivart to Hooker, & told him to return the latter to you.—4 As you think it best, I will not write to Mivart at present, but I do not feel inclined to allow such conduct to pass without telling the author what I think of him in plain language. As for Mivart, now that he afraid of you, saying he is sorry, it goes for nothing. He practised a similar dodge with me about some passages in the Genesis of Species.5 Nor would a private apology to George in my opinion be at all sufficient.
To my knowledge one person has been disgusted & horrified at George, for believing in the Quarterly.— I will wait & do nothing at present, but if George receives a mere simple expression of regret, or if we do not hear, I do not think I shall resist telling him how base a man I think him:
You have been, my dear Huxley, most generous in this whole affair.
Yours affecy | C. Darwin
If, as I understand, you have made out the homology of the skull, it is in my opinion, the greatest discovery for many a year.6
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Summary
THH’s letter to Mivart is "tremendous". CD’s feelings and intentions about the matter.
If THH has made out homology of the skull, it is grandest discovery in years.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9776
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Thomas Henry Huxley
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 311)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9776,” accessed on 19 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9776.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22