Is very glad CK wrote the article My Winter Garden (Kingsley 1858), which CD enjoyed.

Thinks CK should read abstracts of Living Cirripedia (1851) and Living Cirripedia (1854), and then, if he is particularly interested, borrow the actual volumes, rather than purchase them.

Comments on note from Charles Kingsley saying CD’s theory is not opposed to a high conception of the Deity.

Mentions negative views of Origin of Sedgwick, John Crawfurd, Roderick Murchison, John Phillips, and Joseph Prestwich.

All sheets [of Origin, 2d ed.] are ready. Has made a few corrections

and inserted Charles Kingsley’s sentence in answer to those who may think the book is irreligious.

Insists page numbering be kept uniform with 1st edition.

Intends to start immediately on the "larger work", with a distinct title.

Fears reviews will be unfavourable but is confident his views will ultimately prevail.

Asks about plans for French edition.

Thanks JM for his exertions on behalf of sales of Origin.

Thanks for note; correcting proofs for 2d ed. [of Origin].

"If your are at all staggered I shall be quite interested."

Delighted by WBC’s letter about Origin. There is now "a great physiologist on our side". "You have done me an essential kindness in checking the odium theologicum in the E[dinburgh] R[eview] … immaterial whether we go quite the same lengths … the principle is everything."

Encloses a letter from FitzRoy to the Times.

Mentions letter from W. B. Carpenter accepting single progenitor for major animal classes.

Speculates about Richard Owen’s opinion.

Acknowledges receipt of £241 19s. 10d.

Thanks JM for trouble taken with French edition [of Journal of researches].

Is glad 3000 copies of 2d ed. [of Origin] will be printed.

Thanks for THH’s review of Origin in Macmillan’s Magazine ["Time and life: Mr Darwin’s Origin of Species", 1 (1859–60): 142–8]. Reception of natural selection will depend on whether it explains the recognised laws in the several fields of natural history.

Domestic variation.

Mentions English scientists who support mutability of species.

Asks QdeB whether he could help locate a French translator and publisher.

Congratulates CD on Origin; has been "initiated into an entirely new province of knowledge".

Notes error involving rhinoceros.

Encloses other notes.

Sends enclosure [unspecified].

Reminds THH to mention [German] translation [of Origin] when he writes to R. A. von Kölliker.

Comments on the Origin. Outlines difficulties he finds in CD’s theory. Believes CD must define natural selection more accurately and mentions instances in which that principle is an insufficient cause to account for the form of certain structures.

Discuss CL’s suggestions for revisions to the chapter on the geological record [Origin, ch. 9].

Henry Holland’s reaction to the book.

Comments on CL’s work on flint tools of early men.

Describes at length a conversation with Owen concerning Origin. Notes "that at bottom he goes immense way with us", but emphasises Owen’s unfriendly manner. Remarks that Owen accepted a relationship between bears and whales. "By Jove I believe he thinks a sort of Bear was the grandpapa of Whales!"

Has heard Herschel considered his book "the law of higgledy-piggledy".

Sends receipt for bill for £180 due 27 May 1860 [for Origin].

Sends source of description of swimming bear catching insects [Samuel Hearne, A journey from Prince of Wales’s Fort in Hudson’s Bay to the northern ocean … (1795); see Origin, p. 184].

JDH half through Origin. High praise for facts and reasoning.

Lyell told JDH his criticisms: small matters JDH did not appreciate.

Reactions of G. Bentham, J. S. Henslow, and C. C. Babington.

Thanks FG for comments [on Origin].

Acknowledges error involving rhinoceros.

Thinks female fowls select victorious or most beautiful cock.

Sends anecdotes and drawings of pigeons for Royal Institution lecture. Offers parts on hybridisation and pigeons from his MS (if THH has patience to read them).

Has heard George Busk is converted.

Responds to Owen’s remarks that his book [Origin] is not likely to be true because it attempts to explain so much. CD describes how, for fear this might be so, he resolved to give up the work if he could not convince two or three competent judges. He is sensitive because of unjust things said by a distinguished friend [A. Sedgwick]. Value of his views now depends on men eminent in science.