e gravel would graduate into the mud; that
there would not be a hard, straight line between the mass of gravel and
mud; that the gravel, in crawling inland, would be separated from the
underlying beds by oblique lines of stratification. A nice idea of the
difficulty of Geology your section would give to a working man! Do show
your section to Ramsay, and tell him what I say; and if he thinks it
a fair section for a beginner I am shut up, and "will for ever hold my
tongue." Good-night.

LETTER 157. TO T.H. HUXLEY. Down, [January] 10th [1863].

You will be weary of notes from me about the little book of yours. It is
lucky for me that I expressed, before reading No. VI. (157/1. "Lectures
to Working Men," No. VI., is a critical examination of the position
of the "Origin of Species" in relation to the complete theory of
the "causes of the phenomena of organic nature."), my opinion of its
absolute excellence, and of its being well worth wide distribution
and worth correction (not that I see where you could improve), if you
thought it worth your valuable time. Had I read No. VI., even a rudiment
of modesty would, or ought to, have stopped me saying so much. Though I
have been well abused, yet I have had so much praise, that I have become
a gourmand, both as to capacity and taste; and I really did not think
that mortal man could have tickled my palate in the exquisite manner
with which you have done the job. So I am an old ass, and nothing more
need be said about this. I agree entirely with all your reservations
about accepting the doctrine, and you might have gone further with
further safety and truth. Of course I do not wholly agree about
sterility. I hate beyond all things finding myself in disagreement with
any capable judge, when the premises are the same; and yet this will
occasionally happen. Thinking over my former letter to you, I fancied
(but I now doubt) that I had partly found out the cause of our
disagreement, and I attributed it to your naturally thinking most
about animals, with which the sterility of the hybrids is much more
conspicuous than the lessened fertility of the first cross. Indeed,
this could hardly be ascertained with mammals, except by comparing the
products of [their] whole life; and, as far as I know, this has only
been ascertained in the case of the horse and ass, which do produce
fewer offspring in [their] lifetime than in pure breeding. In plants the
test of first cross seems as fair as test o