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



C. Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



Down, [Sept.] nth [1859]. 



My dear Hooker, — I corrected the last proof yesterday, 

 and I have now my revises, index, &c., which will take me 

 near to the end of the month. So that the neck of my work, 

 thank God, is broken. 



I write now to say that I am uneasy in my conscience 

 about hesitating to look over your proofs, but I was feeling 

 miserably unwell and shattered when I wrote. I do not 

 suppose I could be of hardly any use, but if I could, pray 

 send me any proofs. I should be (and fear I was) the most 

 ungrateful man to hesitate to do anything for you after some 

 fifteen or more years' help from you. 



As soon as ever I have fairly finished I shall be off to 

 Ilkley, or some other Hydropathic establishment. But I 

 shall be some time yet, as my proofs have been so utterly 

 obscured with corrections, that I have to correct heavily on 

 revises. 



Murray proposes to publish the first week in November. 



Oh, good heavens, the relief to my head and body to banish 



1 the whole subject from my mind ! 



^ I hope to God, you do not think me a brute about your 



proof-sheets. 



Farewell, yours affectionately, 



C. Darwin. 



C. Darwin to C. Lyell. 



Down, Sept. 20th [1859]. 

 My dear Lyell, — You once gave me intense pleasure, 

 or rather delight, by the way you were interested, in a manner 

 I never expected, in my Coral Reef notions, and now you 

 have again given me similar pleasure by the manner you have 

 noticed my species work.* Nothing could be more satisfac- 



* Sir Charles was President of the Geological section at the meeting 

 of the British Association at Aberdeen in 1S59. The following passage 



