Reactions to On the Origin of Species Catholic discussion of evolution, which has remained almost exclusively concerned with human evolution. On 10 February 1860 Huxley gave a lecture titled "On Species and Races, and their Origin" at the Royal Institution, reviewing Darwin's theory with fancy pigeons on hand to demonstrate artificial selection, as well as using the occasion to confront the clergy with his aim of wresting science from ecclesiastical control. He referred to Galileo's persecution by the church, "the little Canutes of the hour enthroned in solemn state, bidding that great wave to stay, and threatening to check its beneficent progress." He hailed the "Origin" as
On the Origin of Species its audience. From his early transmutation notebooks in the late 1830s onwards, Darwin considered human evolution as part of the natural processes he was investigating, and rejected divine intervention. In 1856, his "big book on species" titled "Natural Selection" was to include a "note on Man", but when Wallace enquired in December 1857, Darwin replied; "You ask whether I shall discuss 'man';—I think I shall avoid whole subject, as so surrounded with prejudices, though I fully admit that it is the highest & most interesting problem for the naturalist." On 28 March 1859, with his manuscript for the book well