You have also collected a surprising number of valuable facts bearing on the dispersal of plants, far more than in any other book known to me. In fact your volume is a mass of interesting facts and discussions, with hardly a superfluous word; and I heartily congratulate you on its publication.
Your dedication makes me prouder than ever.
Believe me, yours sincerely, CH. DARWIN.
[In November, 1879, he answered for Mr. Galton a series of questions utilised in his 'Inquiries into Human Faculty,' 1883. He wrote to Mr. Galton:--"I have answered the questions as well as I could, but they are miserably answered, for I have never tried looking into my own mind. Unless others answer very much better than I can do, you will get no good from your queries. Do you not think you ought to have the age of the answerer? Ithink so, because I can call up faces of many schoolboys, not seen for sixty years, with MUCH DISTINCTNESS, but nowadays I may talk with a man for an hour, and see him several times consecutively, and, after a month, I am utterly unable to recollect what he is at all like. The picture is quite washed out. The greater number of the answers are given in the annexed table."]
QUESTIONS ON THE FACULTY OF VISUALISING.
1. ILLUMINATION? Moderate, but my solitary breakfast was early, and the morning dark.
2. DEFINITION? Some objects quite defined, a slice of cold beef, some grapes and a pear, the state of my plate when I had finished, and a few other objects, are as distinct as if I had photo's before me.
3. COMPLETENESS? Very moderately so.
4. COLOURING? The objects above named perfectly coloured.
5. EXTENT OF FIELD OF VIEW? Rather small.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF IMAGERY.
6. PRINTED PAGES. I cannot remember a single sentence, but I remember the place of the sentence and the kind of type.
7. FURNITURE? I have never attended to it.
8. PERSONS? I remember the faces of persons formerly well-known vividly, and can make them do anything I like.
9. SCENERY? Remembrance vivid and distinct, and gives me pleasure.
10. GEOGRAPHY? No.
11. MILITARY MOVEMENTS? No.
12. MECHANISM? Never tried.
13. GEOMETRY? I do not think I have any power of the kind.
14. NUMERALS? When I think of any number, printed figures arise before my mind. I can't remember for an hour four consecutive figures.
15. CARD PLAYING? Have not played for many years, but I am sure should not remember.
16. CHESS? Never played.
[In 1880 he published a short paper in 'Nature' (volume xxi. page 207) on the "Fertility of Hybrids from the common and Chinese goose." He received the hybrids from the Rev. Dr. Goodacre, and was glad of the opportunity of testing the accuracy of the statement that these species are fertile inter se. This fact, which was given in the 'Origin' on the authority of Mr. Eyton, he considered the most remarkable as yet recorded with respect to the fertility of hybrids. The fact (as confirmed by himself and Dr.
Goodacre) is of interest as giving another proof that sterility is no criterion of specific difference, since the two species of goose now shown to be fertile inter se are so distinct that they have been placed by some authorities in distinct genera or sub-genera.
The following letter refers to Mr. Huxley's lecture: "The Coming of Age of the Origin of Species" (This same "Coming of Age" was the subject of an address from the Council of the Otago Institute. It is given in 'Nature,'
February 24, 1881.), given at the Royal Institution, April 9, 1880, published in 'Nature,' and in 'Science and Culture,' page 310:]
CHARLES DARWIN TO T.H. HUXLEY.
Abinger Hall, Dorking, Sunday, April 11, 1880.
My dear Huxley, I wished much to attend your Lecture, but I have had a bad cough, and we have come here to see whether a change would do me good, as it has done.
What a magnificent success your lecture seems to have been, as I judge from the reports in the "Standard" and "Daily News", and more especially from the accounts given me by three of my children. I suppose that you have not written out your lecture, so I fear there is no chance of its being printed in extenso. You appear to have piled, as on so many other occasions, honours high and thick on my old head. But I well know how great a part you have played in establishing and spreading the belief in the descent-theory, ever since that grand review in the "Times" and the battle royal at Oxford up to the present day.
Ever my dear Huxley, Yours sincerely and gratefully, CHARLES DARWIN.
P.S.--It was absurdly stupid in me, but I had read the announcement of your Lecture, and thought that you meant the maturity of the subject, until my wife one day remarked, "it is almost twenty-one years since the 'Origin' appeared," and then for the first time the meaning of your words flashed on me!
[In the above-mentioned lecture Mr. Huxley made a strong point of the accumulation of palaeontological evidence which the years between 1859 and 1880 have given us in favour of Evolution. On this subject my father wrote (August 31, 1880):]