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



subject at all before your mind. I remember well how 

 many long years it was before I could look into the face of 

 some of the difficulties and not feel quite abashed. I fairly 

 struck my colours before the case of neuter insects.* 



I suppose that I am a very slow thinker, for you would 

 be surprised at the number of years it took me to see clearly 

 what some of the problems were which had to be solved, 

 such as the necessity of the principle of divergence of char- 

 acter, the extinction of intermediate varieties, on a continu- 

 ous area, with graduated conditions ; the double problem of 

 sterile first crosses and sterile hybrids, &c. &c. 



Looking back, I think it was more difficult to see what 

 the problems were than to solve them, so far as I have suc- 

 ceeded in doing, and this seems to me rather curious. Well, 

 good or bad, my work, thank God, is over ; and hard work, 

 I can assure you, I have had, and much work which has 

 never borne fruit. You can see, by the way I am scrib- 

 bling, that I have an idle and rainy afternoon. I was not 

 able to start for Ilkley yesterday as I was too unwell ; but I 

 hope to get there on Tuesday or Wednesday. Do, I beg 

 you, when you have finished my book and thought a little 

 over it, let me hear from you. Never mind and pitch into 

 me, if you think it requisite ; some future day, in London 

 possibly, you may give me a few criticisms in detail, that is, 

 if you have scribbled any remarks on the margin, for the 

 chance of a second edition. 



Murray has printed 1250 copies, which seems to me 

 rather too large an edition, but I hope he will not lose. 



I make as much fuss about my book as if it were my 

 first. Forgive me, and believe me, my dear Lyell, 



Yours most sincerely. 



The book was at last finished and printed, and he wrote 

 to Mr. Murray : 



Ilkley, Yorkshire [1859]. 



My dear Sir, I have received your kind note and the 

 copy ; I am infinitely pleased and proud at the appearance 

 of my child. 



I quite agree to all you proj30se about price. But you 



* Origin of Species, 6th Edition, vol. ii. p. 357. u But with the working 

 ant we have an insect differing greatly from its parents, yet absolutely ster- 

 ile, so that it could never have transmitted successively acquired modifica- 

 tions of structure or instinct to its progeny. It may we'll be asked how is it 

 possible to reconcile this case with the "theory of natural selection ? " 



