x] OF EVOLUTION 117 



'The success of this my first literary child always 

 tickles my vanity more than that of any of my other 

 books 122 .' 



As a matter of fact, no one could possibly be 

 more diffident and modest about his actual literary 

 performances than was Charles Darwin. I have heard 

 him again and again express a wish that he possessed 

 'dear old Lyell's literary skill' ; and he often spoke 

 with the greatest enthusiasm of the 'clearness and 

 force of Huxley's style/ On one occasion he men- 

 tioned to me, with something like sadness in his 

 voice, that it had been asserted ' there was a want of 

 connection and continuity in the written arguments/ 

 and he told me that, while engaged on the Origin, 

 he had seldom been able to write, without inter- 

 ruption from pain, for more than twenty minutes at 

 a time ! 



Charles Darwin never spoke definitely to me 

 about the nature of the sufferings that he so 

 patiently endured. On the occasion of my first visit 

 to him at Down he wrote me a letter (dated 

 August 25th, 1880) in which, after giving the most 

 minute and kindly directions concerning the journey, 

 he arranged that his dog-cart should bring me to the 

 house in time for a 1 o'clock lunch, telling me that to 

 catch a certain train for return, it would be necessary 

 to leave his house a little before 4 o'clock. But he 

 added significantly : 



