496 THE MAKING OF THE ' OBIGIN ' 



I feel brutified, if not brutalised [he confides in Huxley 

 that evening], for poor D. is so bad that he could hardly 

 get steam up to finish what he did. How I wish he could 

 stamp and fume at me — ^instead of taking it so good- 

 humouredly as he will. 



Nor did Hooker merely leave to his friend the tabulation 

 of these important statistics of variation and distribution from 

 the sources thus supplied. He often undertook it himself as a 

 side -work in the flora on which he was at work, whether of New 

 Zealand or India or Australia or the Arctic regions, for no 

 other worker and no published book could provide the answer. 



By a happy compensation these free gifts of time and labour 

 for friendship's sake brought their own reward. With Hooker, 

 as with others, such as Asa Gray, whose opinion Darwin had 

 asked on similar points, the consequent research independently 

 enriched his own books, widened the scope of his results, and 

 pointed the way to a revivifying theory. Writing to Hooker 

 in January 1857, Darwin says : 



You know how I work subjects, namely if I stumble on 

 any general remark, and if I find it confirmed in any other 

 very distinct class, then I try to find out whether it is true, 

 if it has any bearing on my work. 



From this sprang many of his special researches. It was 

 an additional merit in his procedure that he not only saw the 

 crucial points that needed investigation, but inspired his most 

 open-minded friends to independent research on the same 

 lines, leading them to generalise on their results, instead of 

 resting content with mere statements of fact. Thus, when 

 Hooker writes (in December 1857) : 



I have begun my Introd. Essay to Tasmanian Flora. 

 I think I shall confine it to a clear exposition of all the 

 main features of the Flora of Australia and leave all con- 

 clusion drawing to others : 



I am very sorry [he repHes] to hear you do not intend 

 to give generaHsations in your Tasmanian Introduction 

 but I do not believe you will be able to resist ; what is in 

 the spirit must come out. 



