...I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for the human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton.— Let each man hope & believe what he can.—

Man is developed from an ovule, about 125th of an inch in diameter, which differs in no respect from the ovules of other animals.

...all nature is perverse & will not do as I wish it.

It may be conceit, but I believe the subject will interest the public, and I am sure that the views are original.

With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated. We civilized men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination. We build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed and the sick. Thus the weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. Hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.

Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my two gods, though in very different ways, but they were mere schoolboys to old Aristotle.

Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire, & books & music.