316 



THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' 



[i860. 



much disappointed at hearing that Lord Canning will not 

 grant any money ; so I much fear that all your great pains 

 will be thrown away. Blyth says (and he is in many 

 respects a very good judge) that his ideas on Species are 

 quite revolutionized .... 



C. Darwin to J. D. Hookei'. 



Down, June 5th [i860]. 



My DEAR HOOKER, It is a pleasure to me to write to 

 you, as I have no one to talk about such matters as we write 

 on. But I seriously beg you not to write to me unless so 

 inclined ; for busy as you are, and seeing many people, the 

 case is very different between us. . . . 



Have you seen 's abusive article on me ? ... It outdoes 



even the ' North British ' and ' Edinburgh ' in misapprehension 

 and misrepresentation. I never knew anything so unfair as 

 in discussing cells of bees, his ignoring the case of Melipona, 

 which builds combs almost exactly intermediate between hive 



and humble bees. What has done that he feels so 



immeasurably superior to all us wretched naturalists, and 

 to all political economists, including that great philosopher 

 Malthus? This review, however, and Harvey's letter have 

 convinced me that I must be a very bad explainer. Neither 



porting himself for a few years as a 

 writer on Field Natural History, 

 he ultimately went out to India as 

 Curator of the Museum of the R. 

 Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, where the 

 greater part of his working life was 

 spent. His chief publications were 

 the monthly reports made as part 

 of his duty to the Society. He had 

 stored in his remarkable memory a 

 wonderful wealth of knowledge, 

 especially with regard to the mam- 

 malia and birds of India know- 



ledge of which he freely gave to 

 those who asked. His letters to my 

 father give evidence of having been 

 carefully studied, and the long list 

 of entries after his name in the 

 index to ' Animals and Plants/ 

 show how much help was received 

 from him. His life was an unpros- 

 perous and unhappy one, full of 

 money difficulties and darkened by 

 the death of his wife after a few 

 years of marriage. 



