My Dear Darwin

Many thanks for your kindness in sending me a copy of your interesting paper on the Dimorphic condition of the species of Primula.¹ I had read the notice of it in the Gardener Chronicle with great attention.² The facts are curious & have a most important bearing on the subject of species generally.

I hope to be able to examine some of the Primulas in the garden this year with the light which you have thrown upon him³.

We have just had Huxley with us promulgating his views in regard to the Zoological relations of man & monkeys.⁴ He strongly insisted on the fact that the lowest apes do not differ more in zoological structure from the highest apes than the latter do from man, & therefore they & man are in one order. If we go on in the same way taking order after order we shall find that the lowest in one order do not differ more from the highest in the same order than the latter do from the order above—& thus all animals are of one order— There will be disorders in place of orders. No doubt there is one great type throughout the orders & that is all that Huxley proves.

I still think that he must take man with all his functions intellectual & moral in order to determine his position. We are not entitled to leave these out of our consideration even viewing the matter zoologically. The lowest man can be raised by education. He is a religious animal & has a conscience. He is capable of knowing about a God & a future state. In this he differs from all animals. The tendency of man when left to himself has been to degenerate. This is shown by Humboldt & is very decidedly brought out by Whately. & Whewell.⁵ Huxley was cautious & did not boldly declare that he considered man & apes to have the same origin or to be varieties of the same species.

Many of the audience however considered that as the drift of his observations.

He gave a lucid exposition of structure & he was listened to with much interest & attention

Man is the great stumbling block in regard to all recent theories of species. He stands by himself as a Creation I think, & the Records in regard to him are explicit. I cannot overlook them in considering his plan in creation.

You & others may think us in the north prejudiced in this matter.

Excuse this yarn which I have spun most unwittingly.

Browne & I often talk of you & the old Plinian Society days when as young naturalists we discussed many points of interest which have since occupied prominent places in Science.⁶

I am | Yours sincerely | J. H. Balfour