500 THE MAKING OF THE ' ORIGIN ' 



many ways have you aided me.' Yet again, when this delicate 

 situation had been arranged, he adds; ' You must let me once 

 again tell you how deeply I feel your generous kindness and 

 Lyell's on this occasion ; but in truth it shames me that you 

 should have lost time on a mere point of priority.' Still, 

 perhaps the greatest service of all was * making me make this 

 abstract ; for though I thought I had got all clear, it has 

 clarified my brains much, by making me weigh relative import- 

 ance of the several elements,' and ' I shall, when it is done, be 

 able to finish my work with greater ease and leisure.' 



Perhaps the most remarkable tribute paid by Darwin to 

 his friend is that which is given in the ' Life and Letters,' ii. 138. 

 The date is October 1858, while he was hard at work on the 

 Abstract. Hooker the critic had seemed strangely unmoved 

 by the arguments advanced, but a rather despondent note 

 praying him not to pronounce too strongly against Natural 

 Selection till he had read the Abstract, brought an enthusiastic 

 reply, declaring that Darwin's speculations had been a * jampot ' 

 to him. To this Darwin rejoins : 



I wrote the sentence without reflection. But the truth 

 is I have so accustomed myself, partly from being quizzed 

 by my non-naturalist relations, to expect opposition and 

 even contempt, that I forgot for the moment that you are 

 the one living soul from whom I have constantly received 

 sympathy. Believe that I never forget even for a minute 

 how much assistance I have received from you. 



But Darwin, with his usual generosity of spirit, watching 

 the increasing parallelism of their views, feared lest he had 

 checked Hooker's original thoughts by discussing his own views 

 with him so fully and freely. Hooker would have been the 

 last to admit anything of the sort. He, as has been said, while 

 gradually loosening the foundations of his former opinions, 

 was slow to reach conviction as to the new, and only under 

 stress of the completed argument of the ' Origin.' His original 

 interest in their common problems connected with Geographical 

 distribution and the unsatisfactory views current about species, 

 was ever intensified by their constant discussions, while the 



