I have been very unwell all day, and have no strength
to re-write this scrawl. I am working slowly on, and I suppose in three
or four months shall be ready.

I am sure I do not know whether any human being could understand or read
this shameful scrawl.

LETTER 154. TO T.H. HUXLEY. Down, December, 28th [1862].

I return enclosed: if you write, thank Mr. Kingsley for thinking
of letting me see the sound sense of an Eastern potentate. (154/1.
Kingsley's letter to Huxley, dated December 20th, 1862, contains a story
or parable of a heathen Khan in Tartary who was visited by a pair of
proselytising Moollahs. The first Moollah said: "Oh! Khan, worship my
God. He is so wise that he made all things." But Moollah No. 2 won the
day by pointing out that his God is "so wise that he makes all things
make themselves.") All that I said about the little book (154/2. The six
"Lectures to Working Men," published in six pamphlets and in book-form
in 1863. Mr. Huxley considered that Mr. Darwin's argument required
the production by man's selection of breeds which should be mutually
infertile, and thus resemble distinct species physiologically as well as
morphologically.) is strictly my opinion; it is in every way excellent,
and cannot fail to do good the wider it is circulated. Whether it is
worth your while to give up time to it is another question for you alone
to decide; that it will do good for the subject is beyond all question.
I do not think a dunce exists who could not understand it, and that is
a bold saying after the extent to which I have been misunderstood. I did
not understand what you required about sterility: assuredly the facts
given do not go nearly so far. We differ so much that it is no use
arguing. To get the degree of sterility you expect in recently formed
varieties seems to me simply hopeless. It seems to me almost like those
naturalists who declare they will never believe that one species turns
into another till they see every stage in process.

I have heard from Tegetmeier, and have given him the result of my
crosses of the birds which he proposes to try, and have told him how
alone I think the experiment could be tried with the faintest hope of
success--namely, to get, if possible, a case of two birds which when
paired were unproductive, yet neither impotent. For instance, I had this
morning a letter with a case of a Hereford heifer, which seemed to be,
after repeated trials, sterile with one particular and fa