512 THE WRITING OF THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' [1859. 



looked over my chapter, except the third part returned. I 

 am very sorry Mrs. Hooker took the trouble of copying the 

 two pages." 



C. Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



[April or May, 1859] 

 . . . Please do not say to any one that I thought my book 

 on Species would be fairly popular, and have a fairly remu- 

 nerative sale (which was the height of my ambition), for if it 

 prove a dead failure, it would make me the more ridiculous. 

 I enclose a criticism, a taste of the future — 



I Rev. S. Haughton' s Address to the Geological Society, Dublin!^ 



\ ** This speculation of Messrs. Darwin and Wallace would 

 \ not be worthy of notice were it not for the weight of authority 



of the names {i. e. Lyell's and yours), under whose auspices it 

 ! has been brought forward. If it means what it says, it is a 



truism ; if it means anything more, it is contrary to fact." 



Q. E. D. 



C, Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



Down, May nth [1859]. 



My dear Hooker, — Thank you for telling me about 



I obscurity of style. But on my life no nigger with lash over 



him could have worked harder at clearness than I have done. 



But the very difficulty to me, of itself leads to the probability 



that I fail. Yet one lady who has read all my MS. has found 



only two or three obscure sentences, but Mrs. Hooker having 



so found it, makes me tremble. I will do my best in proofs. 



You are a good man to take the trouble to write about it. 



With respect to our mutual muddle, f I never for a moment 



* Feb. 9, 1859. 



f " When I go over the chapter I will see what I can do, but I hardly 

 know how I am obscure, and I think we are somehow in a mutual muddle 

 with respect to each other, from starting from some fundamentally differ- 

 ent notions." — Letter of May 6, 1859. 



