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CAMBRIDGE, January 1, 1860.

[…]

I am now reading a book that I think will make as great as noise as that made a few years ago by the "Vestiges of Creation." It is "Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, etc.," by Charles Darwin, M. A. Mr. Darwin is a correspondent of my friend, Dr. Gray, and Gray says –as indeed his book bears witness –that he is a very thorough naturalist, having been devoted to the study, under the most favorable circumstances, in London, for many years, during many of the last of which he has been elaborating his theory by experiments on plants and animals, and collecting information by correspondence with naturalists everywhere. The result of this book of about five hundred pages, as the precursor of a more complete treatise. I have not yet finished the present volume, but as far as I have read it seems to me a very able work in support of the "Development Theory." Many of his views are quite new to me, and indeed he claims form them the honors of a discovery as his theory. he will certainly succeed in setting afloat the old "Plan of Creation" in the organic world, if he does not destroy it. The tendency of the work is most decidedly atheistical, or pantheistical. I hope and trust that it will be searchingly reviewed by some great and broad naturalist, for in this way only can we

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expect any approach to truth from the conflict. If the little priests will let it alone, I shall be glad. A good American edition is promised in a fortnight. You cannot fail to find in it matter for many an hour's cogitation.

Ever truly yours,

DAINEL TREADWELL.

Soon after this letter to Dr. Sweetser, Mr. Treadwell took part with his friend, Dr. Asa Gray, in a discussion of Darwin's treatise on the "Origin of Species," upon its natural theology, and its influence upon the argument from design: "Is Darwin's Theory Atheistic or Pantheistic?" It was first printed in the American Journal of Science and Arts, September, 1860, and again by Dr. Gray n his "Darwiniana" in 1876.