About a month before the “Origin” was published, Darwin wrote to Professor Huxley asking for the names of foreigners to whom to send his book. This communication is of great interest as being the earliest letter, accessible to the public, which he wrote to Huxley. In it he says: “I shall be _intensely_ curious to hear what effect the book produces on you”; but he evidently thought that Huxley would disagree with much in it, and must have been surprised as well as gratified at the way in which it was received. In his chapter “On the Reception of the ‘Origin of Species’” (“Life and Letters,” Vol. II.), Huxley writes: “My reflection, when I first made myself master of the central idea of the ‘Origin,’ was, ‘How extremely stupid not to have thought of that.’” Huxley replied on November 23rd, 1859--the day before the publication of the “Origin”--saying that he had finished the book on the previous day. His letter was a complete acceptance of evolution as apart from any theory which may account for it; and a thorough agreement with natural selection as a “true cause for the production of species.” At no time in his life did he state how far he considered natural selection to be a sufficient cause. He was only “prepared to go to the stake, if requisite, in support of” the chapters which marshal the evidence for evolution (ix., and most parts of x., xi., and xii.). With regard to the earlier chapters, which propound the theory of natural selection, his exact words are:-- “As to the first four chapters, I agree thoroughly and fully with all the principles laid down in them. I think you have demonstrated a true cause for the production of species, and have thrown the _onus probandi_, that species did not arise in the way you suppose, on your adversaries.” Darwin replied with much warmth, and expressed himself as “Now contented and able to sing my _Nunc Dimittis_.” In the _Times_ of December 26th, 1859, appeared a masterly article upon the “Origin,” and, after a time, it became known that Huxley was its author. Volume II. of the “Life and Letters” explains the circumstances under which the review was written. The article is reprinted as the first essay (“The Darwinian Hypothesis,” I.) in “Darwiniana” (Vol. II. of the “Collected Essays of Professor Huxley,” London, 1893). The following quotation (pp. 19, 20) shows the attitude he took up with regard to natural selection:--