38 



GROWTH OF THE 'ORIGIN.' 



[1849. 



observations, it has already done good and ample service, and 

 may lay its bones in the earth in peace. I never heard any- 

 thing so strange as Falconer's neglect of your letters ; I am 

 extremely glad you are cordial with him again, though it 

 must have cost you an effort. Falconer is a man one must 

 love. . . . May you prosper in every way, my dear Hooker. 



Your affectionate friend, 



C. Darwin. 



C. Danvin to J. D. Hooker. 



Down, Wednesday, [September, n. d.] 

 . . . Many thanks for your letter received yesterday, which, 

 as always, set me thinking : I laughed at your attack at my 

 stinginess in changes of level towards Forbes,* being so 

 liberal towards myself; but I must maintain, that I have 

 never let down or upheaved our mother-earth's surface, for 

 the sake of explaining any one phenomenon, and I trust I 

 have very seldom done so without some distinct evidence. 

 So I must still think it a bold step (perhaps a very true one) 

 to sink into the depths of ocean, within the period of existing 

 species, so large a tract of surface. But there is no amount 

 or extent of change of level, which I am not fully prepared 

 to admit, but I must say I should like better evidence, than 

 the identity of a few plants, which possibly (I do not say 

 probably) might have been otherwise transported. Particular 



* Edward Forbes, born in the 

 Isle of Man 1815, died 1854. His 

 best known work was his Report 

 on the distribution of marine 

 animals at different depths in the 

 Mediterranean. An important 

 memoir of his is referred to in my 

 father's 'Autobiography,' p. 88. He 

 held successively the posts of Cura- 

 tor to the Geological Society's 

 Museum, and Professor of Natural 

 History in the Museum of Practical 



Geology ; shortly before he died he 

 was appointed Professor of Natural 

 History in the University of Edin- 

 burgh. He seems to have im- 

 pressed his contemporaries as a 

 man of strikingly versatile and 

 vigorous mind. The above allu- 

 sion to changes of level refers to 

 Forbes's tendency to explain the 

 facts of geographical distribution 

 by means of an active geological 



imagination. 



