WHAT LED TO THE WORK AND THE SUCCESS OF IT. 167 



coldness fell between the two men after the words of 

 Lyell's in the Antiquity of Man on Natural Selection, 

 and Darwin's letters on them to Lyell in return. We 

 have seen this in allusion already. The date of it was 

 March-April 1863. After that date, up to the letter of 

 September 23, 1874, there appear in the collection, and 

 that, too, only sparsim, during an interval of eleven 

 years and some months, no more than seven letters. 



The first letter in the whole correspondence which we 

 are allowed to see from Darwin to Lyell bears the date 

 August 9, 1838 ; so that from that time onwards to 

 March 1863, we have before us (at least on the one 

 side) a correspondence of a quarter of a century's dura- 

 tion, and of the most intimate and familiar friendship on 

 the part of both of the penmen. It is from that corre- 

 spondence that we proceed to quote, in illustration now of 

 Darwin with Lyell, as previously of Darwin with the others. 



" I repeat, I am full of admiration of it (the Principles), it is as 

 clear as daylight, in fact I felt in many parts some mortification at 

 thinking how geologists have laboured and struggled at proving 

 what seems, as you have put it, so evidently probable You have 

 contrived to make it quite 'juicy,' as we used to say as children of 

 a good story Many a one, I trust, you will send there (to the 

 Principles), and make them, like me, adorers of the good science of 

 rock-breaking I have come to one conclusion, which you will 

 think proves me to be a very sensible man, namely, that whatever 

 you say proves right " (i. 292). " You are the one man in Europe 

 whose opinion of the general truth of a toughish argument I should 

 always be most anxious to hear" (p. 301). " I have long wished to 

 acknowledge that (as in the Dedication of the Journal) the chief part 

 of whatever scientific merit this Journal and the other works of the 

 author may possess, has been derived from studying the well-known 

 and admirable Prindpks of Geology " (p. 337). " What glorious 

 good that work has done how I should rejoice to live to see you 

 publish and discover another stage below the Silurian : it would lie 

 the grandest step possible, I think" (p. 342). "Farewell, my de.ir 

 old patron " (ii. 68). So, my master, forgive me " (p. 72). ' 

 I shall have the opinion of my two best and kindest friends" 



