n November at latest.) or any one saying that Natural
Selection does not explain large classes of facts; but that is very
different from saying that I depart from right principles of scientific
investigation.

LETTER 101. TO J.S. HENSLOW. Down, May 14th [1860].

I have been greatly interested by your letter to Hooker, and I must
thank you from my heart for so generously defending me, as far as you
could, against my powerful attackers. Nothing which persons say hurts
me for long, for I have an entire conviction that I have not been
influenced by bad feelings in the conclusions at which I have arrived.
Nor have I published my conclusions without long deliberation, and they
were arrived at after far more study than the public will ever know of,
or believe in. I am certain to have erred in many points, but I do not
believe so much as Sedgwick and Co. think.

Is there any Abstract or Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical
Society published? (101/1. Henslow's remarks are not given in the
above-mentioned report in the "Cambridge Chronicle.") If so, and you
could get me a copy, I should like to have one.

Believe me, my dear Henslow, I feel grateful to you on this occasion,
and for the multitude of kindnesses you have done me from my earliest
days at Cambridge.

LETTER 102. TO C. LYELL. Down, May 22nd [1860].

Hooker has sent me a letter of Thwaites (102/1. See Letter 97.), of
Ceylon, who makes exactly the same objections which you did at first
about the necessity of all forms advancing, and therefore the difficulty
of simple forms still existing. There was no worse omission than this in
my book, and I had the discussion all ready.

I am extremely glad to hear that you intend adding new arguments about
the imperfection of the Geological Record. I always feel this acutely,
and am surprised that such men as Ramsay and Jukes do not feel it more.

I quite agree on insufficient evidence about mummy wheat. (102/2. See
notes appended to a letter to Lyell, September 1843 (Botany).

When you can spare it, I should like (but out of mere curiosity) to see
Binney on Coal marine marshes.

I once made Hooker very savage by saying that I believed the Coal plants
grew in the sea, like mangroves. (102/3. See "Life and Letters," I.,
page 356.)

LETTER 103. TO J.D. HOOKER.

(103/1. This letter is of interest as containing a strong expression
upon the overwhelming importance of selection.)

Down [1860].

Many thanks for