2 PUBLICATION OF THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' [1859. 



C. Lyell to C. Darwin* 



October 3d, 1859. 



MY DEAR DARWIN, I have just finished your volume 

 and right glad I am that I did my best with Hooker to per- 

 suade you to publish it without waiting for a time which 

 probably could never have arrived, though you lived till the 

 age of a hundred, when you had prepared all your facts on 

 which you ground so many grand generalizations. 



It is a splendid case of close reasoning, and long substan- 

 tial argument throughout so many pages ; the condensation 

 immense, too great perhaps for the uninitiated, but an effect- 

 ive and important preliminary statement, which will admit, 

 even before your detailed proofs appear, of some occasional 

 useful exemplification, such as your pigeons and cirripedes, 

 of which you make such excellent use. 



I mean that, when, as I fully expect, a new edition is 

 soon called for, you may here and there insert an actual case 

 to relieve the vast number of abstract propositions. So far 

 as I am concerned, I am so well prepared to take your state- 

 ments of facts for granted, that I do not think the " pieces 

 justificatives " when published will make much difference, 

 and I have long seen most clearly that if any concession is 

 made, all that you claim in your concluding pages will follow. 

 It is this which has made me so long hesitate, always feeling 

 that the case of Man and his races, and of other animals, and 

 that of plants is one and the same, and that if a " vera 

 causa" be admitted for one, instead of a purely unknown 

 and imaginary one, such as the word " Creation," all the 

 consequences must follow. 



I fear I have not time to-day, as I am just leaving this 

 place, to indulge in a variety of comments, and to say how 

 much I was delighted with Oceanic Islands Rudimentary 

 Organs Embryology the genealogical key to the Natural 



* Part of this letter is given in the ' Life of Sir Charles Lyell,' vol. ii 

 P- 325. 



