WHAT LED TO THE WORK AND THE SUCCESS OF IT. 165 



" My dear Hooker, it is a great thing for me to have so good, true, 

 and old a friend as you. I owe much for science to my friends " 

 (ii. 302). " Many thanks for your last Sunday's letter, which was 

 one of the pleasantest I ever received in my life " (ii. 384). " I have 

 for long years looked at you as my Public, and care more for your 

 opinion than that of all the rest of the world " (iii. 306). " Now 

 that I know that it (the review) is yours, I have re-read it, and, my 

 kind and good friend, it has warmed my heart with all the honour- 

 able and noble things you say of me" (ii. 267). "I have just 

 received your note with sincere grief ; there is no help for it I 

 shall always look at your intention of coming here, under such cir- 

 cumstances, as the greatest proof of friendship I ever received from 

 mortal man " (i. 360). " I then opened yours, and such is the effect 

 of warmth, friendship, and kindness from one that is loved, that the 

 very same fact, told as you told it, made me glow with pleasure till 

 my very heart throbbed " (i. 389). " The amount of scientific work, 

 in so many branches, which you have effected, it is really grand " 

 (i. 395). " I know I shall live to see you the first authority in 

 Europe on that grand subject Geographical Distribution " (i. 336). 

 " What a splendid discussion you could write on the whole subject 

 of variation ! The cases discussed in your last note are valuable to 

 me (though odious and damnable), as showing how profoundly ignor- 

 ant we are on the causes of variation " (ii. 90). " If you see Lyell, 

 will you tell him how truly grateful I feel for his kind interest in 

 this affair of mine. You must know that I look at it as very im- 

 portant, for the reception of the view of species not being immutable, 

 the fact of the greatest geologist and botanist in England taking any 

 sort of interest in the subject. I am sure it will do much to break 

 down prejudices" (ii. 127). "I am fully convinced that yours 

 (Essays) are the most valuable ever published " (ii. 162). " I remember 

 thinking, above a year ago, that if ever I lived to see Lyell, yourself, 

 and Huxley come round, I should feel that the subject is safe " 

 (p. 175). " I have finished your essay, to my judgment it is by far 

 the grandest and most interesting essay, on subjects of the nature dis- 

 cussed, I have ever read ; over and over again I exclaimed, ' This 

 beats all ' " (p. 257). " I cannot find words strong enough to express 

 my admiration of your essay " (p. 259). " You would have made a 

 gigantic fortune as a barrister the world would say, What a lawyer 

 has been lost in a mere botanist ! " (p. 275). " I enclose a criticism, a 

 taste for the future Rev. S. Haughtorfs 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 



