INDEPENDENT LINES OF THOUGHT 501 



special investigations, the result of which often helped to push 

 him along the Darwinian path, were frequently prompted or 

 stimulated by Darwin's enquiries. His own ideas involved 

 mutability of species. Yet so long as he remained unpersuaded 

 of a true cause for mutability, he could hardly have carried 

 these ideas to their full completion. 



Darwin's feeling, well expressed in the letter of December 25, 

 1859, which is given in the * Life and Letters,' ii. 252, appears 

 further from an as yet unpublished passage in his letter of 

 November 14, 1858, the remainder of which is given in C.D. ii. 

 139 and M.L. i. 455. 



I have for some time thought that I have done you an 

 ill-service, in return for the immense good which I have 

 reaped from you, in discussing all my notions with you ; 

 and now there is no doubt of it, as you would have arrived 

 at the mixture [?] independently. My only comfort is, 

 that without you were prepared to give up species, you must 

 have been greatly bothered in your conclusions, for the 

 ranges of identical and representative species are so mixed 

 up in this case, as hardly to be separated. And I can most 

 truly say that I never thought that I might be interfering 

 with your independent work. 



And again, on January 28, 1859 : 



I never did pick anybody's pocket, but whilst writing 

 my present chapter [Geographical Distribution] I keep on 

 feeling (even while differing most from you) just as if I were 

 stealing from you, so much do I owe to your writings and 

 conversation : so much more than mere acknowledgments 

 show. 



Hooker, however, took the opposite view in the missing 

 letter to which Darwin replies on April 2 : 



Do not fear about interfering with me in your publica- 

 tions. I have little doubt your views will be, and have 

 arisen, independent of mine. 



[And on Ap. 7,] The M. Austr. and Origin contain much 

 of the same, but yet somehow everything is taken up from 



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