144 '^^^ 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' [i860. 



try. I shall be very impatient to see the Review.* If it 



succeeds it may really do much, very much good 



I heard to-day from Murray that I must set to work at 

 once on a new edition f of the ' Origin.' [Murray] says the 

 Reviews have not improved the sale. I shall always think 

 those early reviews, almost entirely yours, did the subject an 

 enormous service. If you have any important suggestions or 

 criticisms to make on any part of the ' Origin,' I should, of 

 course, be very grateful for [them]. For I mean to correct 

 as far as I can, but not enlarge. How you must be wearied 

 with and hate the subject, and it is God's blessing if you do 

 not get to hate me. Adios. 



C. Darwin to C. Lyelc. 



Down, November 24tli [i860]. 



My dear Lyell, — I thank you much for your letter. I 

 had got to take pleasure in thinking how I could best snub 

 my reviewers ; but I was determined, in any case, to follow 

 your advice, and, before I had got to the end of your letter, 

 I was convinced of the wisdom of your advice. J; What an 

 advantage it is to me to have such friends as you. I shall 

 follow every hint in your letter exactly. 



I have just heard from Murray ; he says he sold 700 copies 

 at his sale, and that he has not half the number to supply ; so 

 that I must begin at once.* .... 



* The first number of the new series of the ' Nat. Hist. Review ' ap- 

 peared in 1861. 



f The 3rd edition. 



I " I get on slowly with my new edition. I find that your advice was 

 excellent, I can answer all reviews, without any direct notice of them, by 

 a little enlargement here and there, with here and there a new paragraph. 

 Bronn alone I shall treat with the respect of giving his objections with his 

 name. I think I shall improve my book a good deal, and add only some 

 twenty pages." — From a letter to Lyell, December 4th, i860. 



* On the third edition of the ' Origin of Species,' published in April 

 1861. 



