It was really entertaining to have such a book
to review, the errors and misconceptions were so inexplicable and the
self-sufficiency of the man so amazing. Yet there is some excellent
writing in the book, and to a half-informed person it has all the
appearance of being a most valuable and authoritative work.
I am now reviewing a much more important book and one that, if I mistake
not, will really compel you sooner or later to modify some of your
views, though it will not at all affect the main doctrine of Natural
Selection as applied to the higher animals. I allude, of course, to
Bastian's "Beginnings of Life," which you have no doubt got. It is hard
reading, but intensely interesting. I am a thorough convert to his main
results, and it seems to me that nothing more important has appeared
since your "Origin." It is a pity he is so awfully voluminous and
discursive. When you have thoroughly digested it I shall be glad to know
what you are disposed to think. My first notice of it will I think
appear in _Nature_ next week, but I have been hurried for it, and it is
not so well written an article as I could wish.
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