166 DARWINIANISM. 



names (i.e. LyelPs and yours) under whose auspices it has been 

 brought forward ' " (p. 156). " How perfect and elaborated an essay 

 it is as far as my judgment goes, it is the most important discus- 

 sion on the points in question ever published it almost made me 

 gloomy, partly from feeling I could not answer some points which 

 theoretically I should have liked to have been different I shall 

 gnash my teeth and abuse you for having put so many hostile facts 

 so confoundedly well An Oriental Naturalist, with lots of imagina- 

 tion, and not too much regard to facts, is just the man to discuss 

 species " (p. 41). " One thing I see most plainly, that without Lyell's, 

 yours, Huxley's, and Carpenter's aid, my book would have been a 

 mere flash in the pan " (p. 308). 



But Mr. Darwin's letters to Sir Charles Lyell are per- 

 haps the most interesting of all. Lyell, in fact, is the 

 biggest fish ; and it is the hooking of him that is wished, 

 and watched, and waited for with the iutensest interest 

 mit der kochsten Spannung ! Still, it is always to be 

 borne in mind that, as regards affection and admiration 

 for Charles Lyell, it is only sincerity that beats at the 

 heart of Charles , Darwin. The acquaintance of the one 

 with the other seems to have commenced as early as 

 the very month (October) in 1836 which is the date of 

 the return of the Bcaijle. Darwin is able to write to his 

 friend Henslow even then : " Mr. Lyell has entered, in 

 the most good-natured manner, and almost without being 

 asked, into all my plans." A few days later he writes to 

 his cousin and most familiar intimate, Fox : " Amongst 

 the great scientific men, no one has been nearly so 

 friendly and kind as Lyell. I have seen him several 

 times, and feel inclined to like him much." Sir Charles 

 Lyell died, February 22, 1875, in his seventy-eighth year ; 

 and pretty well down to that date the intimacy between 

 Mr. Darwin and him seems to have lasted ; we find (iii. 190) 

 one letter from Darwin to Lyell as late as September 

 23, 1874, and it is subscribed "yours affectionately." 

 Nevertheless, one cannot help fancying that a certain 



