News of his health and the water-cure establishment.
[Origin] "my weariful book on Species" has been sent to WDF, who will not agree with it. Hooker is a convert, and Lyell is "staggered".
Comments on WBC’s response to the Origin. Hopes he will review it. Acceptance will depend more on men like WBC, with well-established reputations, than on his own writings.
"Lyell thinks the chapter on the Imperfection of the Geological Record not exaggerated."
Will judge CD’s book [Origin] free from two superstitions: the dogma of the permanent species and the need of an act of intervention to bring change.
Asks to hear WBC’s conclusion about the Origin when he has read it all. Knows only one believer so far – J. D. Hooker. Sometimes feels frightened that he may be a monomaniac.
Has told John Murray to send copy of the Origin. There are "many valid and weighty arguments against my notions".
No summary available.
Curious about author of review of Origin in Athenæum.
W. B. Carpenter has written and sounds converted, as has Quatrefages [de Bréau], who will "go a long way with" CD.
Has been ill and thus had time to brood about reception of book.
JDH’s congratulations on Origin.
Lyell believes S. P. Woodward wrote review in Athenæum.
Lyell’s and Huxley’s positive responses.
JDH has only plunged into a few chapters.
Hooker to send copy of his essay to ARW.
Questions CD’s view in Origin that domestic dogs are not descended from a single stock. Occasional crossings of domestic stock with wild species could explain cases of reversion towards wild specific forms. CD’s views on hybridity do not then have to be contradicted in constructing an ancestral stock.
Believes natural selection will become recognised as an established truth in science, though it will shock the ideas of many men.
Astounded she cares for his book [Origin] as much as she seems to.
Comments on variation among domestic dogs; believes domestic dog has descended from several wild species and those species from a single ancient ancestor.
Athenæum review is unfair.
Expects to convert four or five "really good judges".
CD hopes Woodward was not the Athenæum reviewer. "The manner in which he drags in immortality, & sets the Priests at me … is base".
JDH has made CD feel he can "face a score of savage reviewers".
H. C. Watson has written to him in tremendous praise of the Origin.
CD’s former admiration for Paley’s Natural theology [1802].
Cares not for reviews [of Origin] but for opinions of men like Lubbock, Huxley, Hooker, Lyell.
Comments on pp. 201, 211, and 218 [of Origin].
Writes of "the Dr’s" [Henry Holland’s] mixed reactions to the book.
Adds a personal opinion, "it is the most interesting book I ever read".
Has just finished Origin. CD has demonstrated a true cause for the production of species.
CD has loaded himself with unnecessary difficulty in adopting natura non facit saltum.
Thanks CL for his decision to accept CD’s "doctrine of modification" [in Elements of geology, 6th ed. (1865)]. Believes it "morally impossible that investigators of truth, like you and Hooker, can be wholly wrong". Does not think CL’s decision will injure his works.
Thinks CL overrates importance of multiple origin of dogs.
Mentions sending copy of Origin to Herschel. Asks CL about Herschel’s reaction.
Mentions reactions to Origin. It will "horrify and disgust" TCE.
Some authorities approve more than CD expected.
Murray has sold out Origin; wants a new edition immediately.
Asks THH to check whether Geoffroy de St Hilaire is correct [form of name].
Would be grateful for THH’s impressions on the truth of natural selection.