214: WHITING OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, [ch. xi. 



quite inconceivable, but I suppose it was owing to my whole 

 attention being fixed on the general line of argument, and 

 not on details. All I can say is, that I am very sorry. 



Yours very sincerely. 



C. D. to J. D. Hooker. Down [Sept.] 11th [1859]. 



My dear Hooker, I corrected the last j>roof yester- 

 day, and I have now my revises, index, &c, which will take 

 me near to the end of the month. So that the neck of my 

 work, thank God, is broken. 



I write now to say that I am uneasy in my conscience 

 about hesitating to look over your proofs,* but I was feeling 

 miserably unwell and shattered when I wrote. I do not 

 suppose I could be of hardly any use, but if I could, 

 pray send me any proofs. I should be (and fear I was) the 

 most ungrateful man to hesitate to do anything for you 

 after some fifteen or more years' help from you. 



As soon as ever I have fairly finished I shall be off to 

 Ilkley, or some other Hydropathic establishment. But I 

 shall be some time yet, as my proofs have been so utterly 

 obscured with corrections, that I have to correct heavily on 

 revises. 



Murray proposes to publish the first week in November. 

 Oh, good heavens, the relief to my head and body to banish 

 the whole subject from my mind ! 



I hope you do not think me a brute about your proof- 

 sheets. 



Farewell, yours affectionately. 



The following letter is interesting as showing with what 

 a very moderate amount of recognition he was satisfied, 

 and more than satisfied. 



Sir Charles Lyell was President of the Geological section 

 at the meeting of the British Association at Aberdeen in 

 1859. In his address he said : " On this difficult and mys- 

 terious subject [Evolution] a work will very shortly appear 

 by Mr. Charles Darwin, the result of twenty years of obser- 

 vations and experiments in Zoology, Botany, and Geology, 

 by which he has been led to the conclusion that those pow- 

 ers of nature which'give rise to races and permanent varie- 

 ties in animals and plants, are the same as those which in 



* Of Hooker's Flora of Australia. 



