vii] OF EVOLUTION 75 



Very heartily, as I can bear witness from long 

 intercourse with him, was this deep affection of 

 Darwin reciprocated by the man who was addressed 

 by him in his letters as 'Your affectionate pupil* 

 But a stranger who conversed with Lyell would have 

 thought that he was the junior and a disciple ; so 

 profound was his reverence for the genius of Darwin. 



There can be no doubt that Lyell's extreme 

 caution in statement, and his candour in admitting 

 and replying to objections, had much to do with his 

 acquirement of that authority with general, no less 

 than with scientific, readers, which he so long enjoyed. 

 In his candour he resembled his friend Darwin ; but 

 his caution was carried so far that, even after full 

 conviction had entered his mind on a subject, he 

 would still hesitate to avow that conviction. He was 

 always obsessed by a feeling that there still might be 

 objections, which he had not foreseen and met, and 

 therefore felt it unsafe to declare himself. No doubt 

 the peculiarly trying circumstances under which his 

 work was written a seemingly hopeless protest 

 against ideas held unswervingly by teachers and 

 fellow-workers led to the creation in him of this 

 habit of mind. 



Darwin, with all his candour, was of a far more 

 sanguine and optimistic temperament than Lyell, and 

 the difference between them, in this respect, often 

 comes out in their correspondence. 



