306 LIFE AT DOWN. ^TAT. 33-45. [1845. 



C. Darwin to C. Lycll. 



Down [July, 1845]. 



MY DEAR LYELL, I send you the first part * of the new 

 edition [of the 'Journal of Researches '], which I so entirely 

 owe to you. You will see that I have ventured to dedicate it 

 to you,f and I trust that this cannot be disagreeable. I have 

 long wished, not so much for your sake, as for my own feelings 

 of honesty, to acknowledge more plainly than by mere refer- 

 ence, how much I geologically owe you. Those authors, how- 

 ever, who like you, educate people's minds as well as teach 

 them special facts, can never, I should think, have full justice 

 done them except by posterity, for the mind thus insensibly 

 improved can hardly perceive its own upward ascent. I had 

 intended putting in the present acknowledgment in the third 

 part of my Geology, but its sale is so exceedingly small that 

 I should not have had the satisfaction of thinking that as far 

 as lay in my power I had owned, though imperfectly, my debt. 

 Pray do not think that I am so silly, as to suppose that my 

 dedication can any ways gratify you, except so far as I trust 

 you will receive it, as a most sincere mark of my gratitude 

 and friendship. I think I have improved this edition, espe- 

 cially the second part, which I have just finished. I have 

 added a good deal about the Fuegians, and cut down into 

 half the mercilessly long discussion on climate and glaciers, 

 &c. I do not recollect anything added to the first part, long 

 enough to call your attention to ; there is a page of descrip- 

 tion of a very curious breed of oxen in Banda Oriental. I 

 should like you to read the few last pages; there is a little 

 discussion on extinction, which will not perhaps strike you 



* No doubt proof-sheets. 



f The dedication of the second edition of the ' Journal of Researches,' 

 is as follows : " To Charles Lyell, Esq., F. R. S., this seco'nd edition is 

 dedicated with grateful pleasure as an acknowledgment that 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 ' Principles of Geology. 1 " 



