The attacks have been
heavy and incessant of late. Sedgwick and Prof. Clarke attacked me
savagely at the Cambridge Philosophical Society, but Henslow defended me
well, though not a convert. Phillips has since attacked me in a lecture
at Cambridge; Sir W. Jardine in the _Edinburgh New Philosophical
Journal_, Wollaston in the _Annals of Nat. History_, A. Murray before
the Royal Soc. of Edinburgh, Haughton at the Geological Society of
Dublin, Dawson in the _Canadian Nat. Magazine_, and _many others_. But I
am getting case-hardened, and all these attacks will make me only more
determinedly fight. Agassiz sends me personal civil messages, but
incessantly attacks me; but Asa Gray fights like a hero in defence.
Lyell keeps as firm as a tower, and this autumn will publish on the
Geological History of Man, and will then declare his conversion, which
now is universally known. I hope that you have received Hooker's
splendid essay. So far is bigotry carried that I can name three
botanists who will not even read Hooker's essay!! Here is a curious
thing: a Mr. Pat. Matthews, a Scotchman, published in 1830 a work on
Naval Timber and Arboriculture, and in the appendix to this he gives
_most clearly_ but very briefly in half-dozen paragraphs our view of
Natural Selection.
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