442 THE UNFINISHED BOOK. [1856. 



tion. I will, however, never ask such a favour again ; but in 

 regard to this one piece of MS., it is of infinite importance to 

 me for you to see it ; for never in my life have I felt such 

 difficulty what to do, and I heartily wish I could slur the 

 whole subject over." 



In a letter to Sir J. D. Hooker (June, 1856), the following 

 characteristic passage occurs, suggested, no doubt, by the 

 kind of work which his chapter on Geographical Distribution 

 entailed : 



" There is wonderful ill logic in his [E. Forbes'] famous 

 and admirable memoir on distribution, as it appears to me, 

 now that I have got it up so as to give the heads in a page. 

 Depend on it, my saying is a true one, viz., that a compiler 

 is a gi^eat man, and an original man a commonplace man. 

 Any fool can generalise and speculate ; but, oh, my heavens ! 

 to get up at second hand a New Zealand Flora, that is work."] 



C. Darwin to W. D. Fox. 



Oct. 3 [1S56]. 

 ... I remember you protested against Lyell's advice of 

 writing a sketch of my species doctrines. Well, when I began 

 I found it such unsatisfactory work that I have desisted, and 

 am now drawing up my work as perfect as my materials of 

 nineteen years' collecting suffice, but do not intend to stop 

 to perfect any line of investigation beyond current work. 

 Thus far and no farther I shall follow Lyell's urgent advice. 

 Your remarks weighed with me considerably. I find to my 

 sorrow it will run to quite a big book. I have found my care- 

 ful work at pigeons really invaluable, as enlightening me on 

 many points on variation under domestication. The copious 

 old literature, by w^hich I can trace the gradual changes in 

 the breeds of pigeons has been extraordinarily useful to me. 

 I have just had pigeons and fowls alive from the Gambia ! 

 Rabbits and ducks I am attending to pretty carefully, but 

 less so than pigeons. I find most remarkable differences in 

 the skeletons of rabbits. Have you ever kept any odd breeds 



