From T. H. Huxley To St. G. J. Mivart   [23 December 1874]

Dear Mivart

I am much obliged for the letter which you have sent me in reply to the message which M^r Roberts was kind enough to convey from me— The letter is marked private & confidential, & I have endeavoured to respect your wishes in that matter So far as such a course may be consistent with justice to those concerned ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ with its contents.

You tell me that you now regret the publication of the attack on M^r G. Darwin, & that the impression made upon your mind by his article, & under the influence of which you wrote, is not to be justified— And I gather that this regret & conviction that your attack was not justifiable have existed in ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ mind for some months— in fact ever since the article was published.

Under these circumstances, had I been in your position, there were two things I shd have felt it my duty to do. In the first place I should have written to Mr G. Darwin or to Mr D.— with whom you have been in friendly correspondence & offered him the fullest & frankest apology I c^d put into words, & in the second place, I ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ requested the Ed. of the ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ to insert a note fully & fairly retracting all that c^d be considered unjust & therefore offensive to M^r. G. D—

You did neither of these things, & when an apology was extorted from the J.— what appeared presumably with your sanction, if not from your hand, was a defence rather than a retractation.

Proceedings of this kind are not in accordance with what I understood to be the rules by which men sh^d endeavour to guide their conduct— & as I concur with Mr G. D that the charges made & insinuated against him are, as he says “absolutely false”—it will be obvious to you that our views on those points which I hold to be the most important of all to mankind, are too hopelessly divergent to readers familiar intercourse between us pleasant or adviseable

I am | Yours very truly | T. H. H—