520 THE WRITING OF THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' [1859. 



C. Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



Down, [Sept.] nth [1859]. 



My dear Hooker, — I corrected the last proof yesterday, 

 and I have now my revises, index, &c., which will take me 

 near to the end of the month. So that the neck of my work, 

 thank God, is broken. 



I write now to say that I am uneasy in my conscience 

 about hesitating to look over your proofs, but I was feeling 

 miserably unwell and shattered when I wrote. I do not 

 suppose I could be of hardly any use, but if I could, pray 

 send me any proofs. I should be (and fear I was) the most 

 ungrateful man to hesitate to do anything for you after some 

 fifteen or more years' help from you. 



As soon as ever I have fairly finished I shall be off to 

 Ilkley, or some other Hydropathic establishment. But I 

 shall be some time yet, as my proofs have been so utterly 

 obscured with corrections, that I have to correct heavily on 

 revises. 



Murray proposes to publish the first week in November. 

 Oh, good heavens, the relief to my head and body to banish 

 the whole subject from my mind ! 



I hope to God, you do not think me a brute about your 

 proof-sheets. 



Farewell, yours affectionately, 



C. Darwin. 



C. Darwin to C. Lyell. 



Down, Sept. 20th [1859]. 

 My dear Lyell, — You once gave me intense pleasure, 

 or rather delight, by the way you were interested, in a manner 

 I never expected, in my Coral Reef notions, and now you 

 have again given me similar pleasure by the manner you have 

 noticed my species work.* Nothing could be more satisfac- 



* Sir Charles was President of the Geological section at the meeting 

 of the British Association at Aberdeen in 1859. The following passage 



