i862 WORKING MEN'S LECTURES 



223 



Somebody told me you had been ill, but I hope it was fiction, 

 and that you and Mrs. Darwin and all your belongings are 

 flourishing. — Ever yours faithfully, T. H. Huxley. 



In reply, Darwin writes on December 10: — 



I agree entirely with all your reservations about accepting 

 the doctrine, and you might have gone further with perfect 

 safety and truth. . . . 



Touching the Natural History Review, " Do inaugurate a 

 great improvement, and have pages cut, like the Yankees do;- 

 I will heap blessings on your head." 



And again, December 18 : — 



I have read No. IV. and V. They are simply perfect. They 

 ought to be largely advertised ; but it is very good in me to say 

 so, for I threw down No. IV. with this reflection, " What is the 

 good of my writing a thundering big book, when everything is 

 in this green little book so despicable for its size ? " In the name 

 of all that is good and bad I may as well shut up shop altogether. 



These lectures met with an annoying amount of suc- 

 cess. They were not cast into permanent form, for he 

 grudged the time necessary to prepare them for the press. 

 However, he gave a Mr. Hardwicke permission to take them 

 down in shorthand as delivered for the use of the audience. 

 But no sooner were they printed, than they had a large sale. 

 Writing to Sir J. D. Hooker early in the following month, 

 he says : — 



I fully meant to have sent you all the successive lectures as 

 they came out, and I forward a set with all manner of apologies 

 for my delinquency. I am such a 'umble-minded party that I 

 never imagined the lectures as delivered would be worth bring- 

 ing out at all, and I knew I had no time to work them out. Now, 

 I lament I did not publish them myself and turn an honest penny 

 by them as I suspect Hardwicke is doing. He is advertising 

 them everywhere, confound him. 



I wish when you have read them you would tell me whether 

 you think it would be worth while for me to re-edit, enlarge, and 

 illustrate them by and by. 



And on January 28 Sir C. Lyell writes to him : — 



