ch. xii.] OCTOBER 1850, TO DECEMBER 1859. 233 



J. D. Hooker to C. Darwin. Kew [1859]. 



Dear Darwix, You have, I know, been drenched with 

 letters since the publication of your book, and I have hence 

 forborne to add my mite.* I hope now that you are well 

 through Edition -II., and I have heard that you were flour- 

 ishing in London. I have not yet got half-through the 

 book, not from want of will, but of time for it is the very 

 hardest book, to read, to full profits, that I ever tried it is 

 so cram-full of matter and reasoning, f I am all the more 

 glad that you have published in this form, for the three 

 volumes, unprefaced by this, would have choked any Natu- 

 ralist of the nineteenth century, and certainly have soft- 

 ened my brain in the operation of assimilating their con- 

 tents. I am perfectly tired of marvelling at the wonderful 

 amount of facts you have brought to bear, and your skill in 

 marshalling them and throwing them on the enemy ; it is 

 also extremely clear as far as I have gone, but very hard to 

 fully appreciate. Somehow it reads very different from the 

 MS., and I often fancy that I must have been very stupid 

 not to have more fully followed it in MS. Lyell told me of 

 his criticisms. I did not appreciate them all, and there are 

 many little matters I hope one day to talk over with you. 

 I saw a highly flattering notice in the English Churchman, 

 short and not at all entering into discussion, but praising 

 you and your book, and talking patronizingly of the doc- 

 trine ! . . . Bentham and Henslow will still shake their 

 heads, I fancy. . . . 



Ever yours affectionately. 



C. D. to T. II Huxley. Down, Dec. 28th [1859] 



My dear Huxley, Yesterday evening, when I read 

 the Times of a previous day, I was amazed to find a splen- 

 did essay and review of me. Who can the author be ? I 

 am intensely curious. It included an eulogium of me which 

 quite touched me, though I am not vain enough to think it 

 all deserved. The author is a literary man and German 

 scholar. lie has read my book very attentively ; but what 



* See, however, p. 211. 



t Mr. Huxley has made a similar remark : "Long occupation with the work 

 has led the present writer to believe that the Origin of Species is one of the 

 hardest of books to master." Obituary Notice, Proc. E. iSoc. No. 269, p. xvii. 



