law. I
do not know when I have read a review which interested me so much. By
Heavens, how the blood must have gushed into the capillaries when a
certain great man (whom with all his faults I cannot help liking) read
it!

I am rather sorry you do not think more of Agassiz's embryological
stages (34/3. See "Origin," Edition VI., page 310: also Letter 40,
Note.), for though I saw how exceedingly weak the evidence was, I was
led to hope in its truth.

LETTER 35. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down [1854].

With respect to "highness" and "lowness," my ideas are only eclectic and
not very clear. It appears to me that an unavoidable wish to compare all
animals with men, as supreme, causes some confusion; and I think that
nothing besides some such vague comparison is intended, or perhaps is
even possible, when the question is whether two kingdoms such as the
Articulata or Mollusca are the highest. Within the same kingdom I am
inclined to think that "highest" usually means that form which has
undergone most "morphological differentiation" from the common embryo or
archetype of the class; but then every now and then one is bothered
(as Milne Edwards has remarked) by "retrograde development," i.e.,
the mature animal having fewer and less important organs than its own
embryo. The specialisation of parts to different functions, or
"the division of physiological labour" (35/1. A slip of the pen for
"physiological division of labour.") of Milne Edwards exactly agrees
(and to my mind is the best definition, when it can be applied)
with what you state is your idea in regard to plants. I do not think
zoologists agree in any definite ideas on this subject; and my ideas are
not clearer than those of my brethren.

LETTER 36. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, July 2nd [1854].

I have had the house full of visitors, and when I talk I can do
absolutely nothing else; and since then I have been poorly enough,
otherwise I should have answered your letter long before this, for I
enjoy extremely discussing such points as those in your last note. But
what a villain you are to heap gratuitous insults on my ELASTIC theory:
you might as well call the virtue of a lady elastic, as the virtue of a
theory accommodating in its favours. Whatever you may say, I feel that
my theory does give me some advantages in discussing these points. But
to business: I keep my notes in such a way, viz., in bulk, that I cannot
possibly lay my hand on any reference; nor as far as the vegeta