is far more important.

I told you that I had nothing worth saying, but I have given you my
THOUGHTS.

How detestable are the Roman numerals! why should not the President's
addresses, which are often, and I am sure in this case, worth more than
all the rest of the number, be paged with Christian figures?

LETTER 291. TO R. MELDOLA.

(291/1. "This letter was in reply to a suggestion that in his preface
Mr. Darwin should point out by references to "The Origin of Species"
and his other writings how far he had already traced out the path which
Weismann went over. The suggestion was made because in a great many of
the continental writings upon the theory of descent, many of the points
which had been clearly foreshadowed, and in some cases even explicitly
stated by Darwin, had been rediscovered and published as though
original. In the notes to my edition of Weismann I have endeavoured to
do Darwin full justice.--R.M." See Letter 310.)

4, Bryanston Street, November 26th, 1878.

I am very sorry to say that I cannot agree to your suggestion. An author
is never a fit judge of his own work, and I should dislike extremely
pointing out when and how Weismann's conclusions and work agreed with my
own. I feel sure that I ought not to do this, and it would be to me
an intolerable task. Nor does it seem to me the proper office of the
preface, which is to show what the book contains, and that the contents
appear to me valuable. But I can see no objection for you, if you think
fit, to write an introduction with remarks or criticisms of any kind. Of
course, I would be glad to advise you on any point as far as lay in my
power, but as a whole I could have nothing to do with it, on the grounds
above specified, that an author cannot and ought not to attempt to judge
his own works, or compare them with others. I am sorry to refuse to do
anything which you wish.

LETTER 292. TO T.H. HUXLEY. Down, January 18th, 1879.

I have just finished your present of the Life of Hume (292/1. "Hume" in
Mr. Morley's "English Men of Letters" series. Of the biographical part
of this book Mr. Huxley wrote, in a letter to Mr. Skelton, January 1879
("Life of T.H. Huxley," II., page 7): "It is the nearest approach to a
work of fiction of which I have yet been guilty."), and must thank you
for the great pleasure which it has given me. Your discussions are,
as it seems to me, clear to a quite marvellous degree, and many of
the little interspersed flashes