Julia's review of On the Origin of Species published in two parts in Macmillan's Magazine in June 1860 and July 1861 was her first attempt at a ‘masculine’ subject. She carried it off well, earning generous praise from Darwin as one of the few who had fully understood his book. Her article was an early example of a defence of the new theory of evolution by natural selection written from an avowedly religious point of view. It also proved farsighted in its foreshadowing of the basis on which the Idealist school would learn to live with Darwinism 30 years later. The fact that the review was written by a woman made it even more remarkable.

Julia's initial reaction to her uncle's great work was one of intense intellectual excitement. Later, she would be disillusioned. As churchmen, initially hostile to Darwin's views, began to find ways of accommodating themselves to Darwinism, Julia travelled in the opposite direction, appalled by what she saw as a growing divergence between science and religion and, even more, by the claims of the scientists to a separate, even superior knowledge. The most vocal of them, Thomas Henry Huxley, marked out some of the battle lines for the coming conflict early in 1860 in an article in Macmillan's Magazine. Julia's two articles, which she called ‘The Boundaries of Science’, were, in part, a response to him.

Macmillan's Magazine, which began in 1859, had its roots in Christian Socialism. David Masson, its first editor, was recommended by the Christian Socialists Thomas Hughes and John Ludlow, while its proprietor, Alexander Macmillan, had first come under the spell of Maurice when an undergraduate at Cambridge. The magazine quickly established itself in the new market for reasonably priced monthly publications designed to appeal to middle-class readers. It both promoted existing Macmillan authors like Charles Kingsley and Thomas Hughes, and discovered new ones like Julia, who would go on to publish two books with the firm. Both Masson and Macmillan were keen to introduce female authors. Christina Rossetti would first publish some of her poems in Macmillan's Magazine, including ‘Up Hill’, one of Julia's favourites.