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



C. Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



Down, December 14th [1859]. 



My dear Hooker, — Your approval of my book, for many 

 reasons, gives me intense satisfaction ; but I must make some 

 allowance for your kindness and sympathy. Any one with 

 ordinary faculties, if he had patience enough and plenty of 

 time, could have written my book. You do not know how I 

 admire your and Lyell's generous and unselfish sympathy, I 

 do not believe either of you would have cared so much about 

 your own work. My book, as yet, has been far more suc- 

 cessful than I ever even formerly ventured in the wildest day- 

 dreams to anticipate. We shall soon be a good body of 

 working men, and shall have, I am convinced, all young and 

 rising naturalists on our side. I shall be intensely interested 

 to hear whether my book produces any effect on A. Gray ; 

 from what I heard at Lyell's, I fancy your correspondence 

 has brought him some way already. I fear that there is no 

 chance of Bentham being staggered. Will he read my book ? 

 Has he a copy ? I would send him one of the reprints if he 

 has not. Old J. E. Gray,* at the British Musuem, attacked 

 me in fine style : " You have just reproduced Lamarck's doc- 

 trine and nothing else, and here Lyell and others have been 

 attacking him for twenty years, and because you (with a sneer 

 and laugh) say the very same thing, they are all coming 

 round ; it is the most ridiculous inconsistency, &c., &c." 



You must be very glad to be settled in your house, and I 

 hope all the improvements satisfy you. As far as my expe- 

 rience goes, improvements are never perfection. I am very 



* John Edward Gray (born 1800, died 1875) was the son of S. F. Gray, 

 author of the * Supplement to the Pharmacopoeia.' In 1821 he published 

 in his father's name ' The Natural Arrangement of British Plants,' one of 

 the earliest works in English on the natural method. In 1824 he became 

 connected with the Natural History Department of the British Museum, 

 and was appointed Keeper of the Zoological collections in 1840. He was 

 the author of ' Illustrations of Indian Zoology,' ' The Knowsley Menage- 

 rie,' &c, and of innumerable descriptive Zoological papers. 



