398 GROWTH OF THE 'ORIGIN.' [1849. 



would be easy were it not for this confounded variation, 

 which, however, is pleasant to me as a speculatist, though 

 odious to me as a systematist. Your remarks on the dis- 

 tinctness (so unpleasant to me) of the Himalayan Rubi, wil- 

 lows, &c., compared with those of northern [Europe ?], &c., 

 are very interesting ; if my rude species-sketch had any small 

 share in leading you to these observations, it has already 

 done good and ample service, and may lay its bones in the 

 earth in peace. I never heard anything so strange as Fal- 

 coner's neglect of your letters ; I am extremely glad you are 

 cordial with him again, though it must have cost you an 

 effort. Falconer is a man one must love. . . . May you pros- 

 per in every way, my dear Hooker. 



Your affectionate friend, 



C. Darwin. 



C. Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



Down, Wednesday [September, n. d.]. 

 . . , Many thanks for your letter received yesterday, 

 which, as always, set me thinking : I laughed at your attack 

 at my stinginess in changes of level towards Forbes,* being 

 so liberal towards myself ; but I must maintain, that I have 

 never let down or upheaved our mother-earth's surface, for 

 the sake of explaining any one phenomenon, and I trust I 

 have very seldom done so without some distinct evidence. 

 So I must still think it a bold step (perhaps a very true one) 



* Edward Forbes, born in the Isle of Man 1815, died 1854. His best 

 known work was his Report on the distribution of marine animals at dif- 

 ferent depths in the Mediterranean. An important memoir of his is re- 

 ferred to in my father's ' Autobiography,' p. 72. He held successively the 

 posts of Curator to the Geological Society's Museum, and Professor of 

 Natural History in the Museum of Practical Geology ; shortly before he 

 died he was appointed Professor of Natural History in the University of 

 Edinburgh. He seems to have impressed his contemporaries as a man of 

 strikingly versatile and vigorous mind. The above allusion to changes of 

 level refers to Forbes's tendency to explain the facts of geographical dis- 

 tribution by means of an active geological imagination. 



