The
discussion which followed during three consecutive meetings is very rich
from the nonsense talked. If you would care to see the number I could
lend it you.
I forgot to remark how capitally you turn the table on the Duke, when
you make him create the _Angraecum_ and moth by special creation.
* * * * *
_Hurstpierpoint. October 22, 1867._
Dear Darwin,--I am very glad you approve of my article on "Creation by
Law" as a whole.
The "machine metaphor" is not mine, but the _North British_ reviewer's.
I merely accept it and show that it is on our side and not against us,
but I do not think it at all a good metaphor to be used as an _argument_
either way. I did not half develop the argument on the limits of
variation, being myself limited in space; but I feel satisfied that it
is the true answer to the very common and very strong objection, that
"variation has strict limits." The fallacy is the requiring variation in
domesticity to go beyond the limits of the same variation under nature.
It does do so sometimes, however, because the conditions of existence
are so different.
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