1859.] PROOF-SHEETS. 515 



C. Darwin to C. LyelL 



Down, June 21st [1859J. 



I am working very hard, but get on slowly, for I find that 

 my corrections are terrifically heavy, and the work most 

 difficult to me. I have corrected 130 pages, and the volume 

 will be about 500. I have tried my best to make it clear and 

 striking, but very much fear that I have failed — so many dis- 

 cussions are and must be very perplexing. I have done my 

 best. If you had all my materials, I am sure you would have 

 made a splendid book. I long to finish, for I am nearly worn 



out. 



My dear Lyell, ever yours most truly, 



C. Darwin. 

 C, Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



Down, 22nd [June, 1859]. 



My dear Hooker, — I did not answer your pleasant note, 

 with a good deal of news to me, of May 30th, as I have been 

 expecting proofs from you. But now, having nothing par- 

 ticular to do, I will fly a note, though I have nothing particu- 

 lar to say or ask. Indeed, how can a man have anything to 

 say, who spends every day in correcting accursed proofs ; 

 and such proofs ! I have fairly to blacken them, and fasten 

 slips of paper on, so miserable have I found the style. You 

 say that you dreamt that my book was entertaining ; that 

 dream is pretty well over with me, and I begin to fear that 

 the public will find it intolerably dry and perplexing. But I 

 will never give up that a better man could have made a 

 splendid book out of the materials. I was glad to hear about 

 Prestwich's paper.* My doubt has been (and I see Wright 

 has inserted the same in the * Athenaeum ') whether the pieces 

 of flint are really tools ; their numbers make me doubt, and 

 when I formerly looked at Boucher de Perthe's drawings, I 



* Mr. Prestwich wrote on the occurrence of flint instruments associated 

 with the remains of extinct animals in France. — (Proc. R. Soc, 1859.) 



