On this one point of beauty, I can hardly think that the Duke was quite
candid. I have used in the concluding paragraph of my present book
precisely the same argument as you have, even bringing in the
bulldog,[63] with respect to variations not having been specially
ordained. Your metaphor of the river[64] is new to me, and admirable;
but your other metaphor, in which you compare classification and complex
machines, does not seem to me quite appropriate, though I cannot point
out what seems deficient. The point which seems to me strong is that all
naturalists admit that there is a _natural_ classification, and it is
this which descent explains. I wish you had insisted a little more
against the _North British_[65] reviewer assuming that each variation
which appears is a strongly marked one; though by implication you have
made this _very_, plain. Nothing in your whole article has struck me
more than your view with respect to the limit of fleetness in the
racehorse and other such cases; I shall try and quote you on this head
in the proof of my concluding chapter.
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