202 WRITING OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, [ch. xi. 



I assure you I feel it, and shall not forget it. I am more 

 than satisfied at what took place at the Linnean Society. I 

 had thought that your letter and mine to Asa Gray were to 

 be only an appendix to Wallace's paper. 



W r e go from here in a few days to the sea-side, probably 

 to the Isle of Wight, and on my return (after a battle with 

 pigeon skeletons) I will set to work at the abstract, though 

 how on earth I shall make anything of an abstract in thirty 

 pages of the Journal, I know not, but will try my best. . . 



I must try and see you before your journey ; but do not 

 think I am fishing to ask you to come to Down, for you 

 will have no time for that. 



You cannot imagine how pleased I am that the notion 

 of Natural Selection has acted as a purgative on your 

 bowels of immutability. Whenever naturalists can look at 

 species changing as certain, what a magnificent field will be 

 open, on all the laws of variation, on the genealogy of 

 all living beings, on their lines of migration, &c. &c. 

 Pray thank Mrs. Hooker for her very kind little note, and 

 pray say how truly obliged I am, and in truth ashamed to 

 think that she should have had the trouble of copying my 

 ugly MS. It was extraordinarily kind in her. Farewell, 

 my dear kind friend. 



Yours affectionately. 



P.S. I have had some fun here in watching a slave-mak- 

 ing ant ; for I could not help rather doubting the wonderful 

 stories, but I have now seen a defeated marauding party, and 

 I have seen a migration from one nest to another of the 

 slave-makers, carrying their slaves (who are house, and not 

 field niggers) in their mouths ! 



C. P. to C. Lyell. King's Head Hotel, Sandown, Isle of 

 Wight July 18th [1858]. 



. . . We are established here for ten days, and then go on 

 to Shanklin, which seems more amusing to one, like myself, 

 who cannot walk. W r e hope much that the sea may do H. 

 and L. good. And if it does, our expedition will answer, 

 but not otherwise. 



I have never half thanked you for all the extraordinary 

 trouble and kindness you showed me about Wallace's affair. 

 Hooker told me what was done at the Linnean Society, and 

 I am far more than satisfied, and I do not think that Wallace 



