482 THE WRITING OF THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' [1S58. 



cannot make it better. Your imagination must fill up many 

 wide blanks. Without some reflection, it will appear all rub- 

 bish ; perhaps it will appear so after reflection. 



C. D. 



P. S. — This little abstract touches only the accumulative 

 power of natural selection, which I look at as by far the most 

 important element in the production of new forms. The laws 

 governing the incipient or primordial variation (unimportant 

 except as the groundwork for selection to act on, in which 

 respect it is all important), I shall discuss under several heads, 

 but I can come, as you may well believe, only to very partial 

 and imperfect conclusions. 



[The joint paper of Mr. Wallace and my father was read 

 at the Linnean Society on the evening of July 1st. Sir Charles 

 Lyell and Sir J. D. Hooker were present, and both, I believe, 

 made a few remarks, chiefly with a view of impressing on 

 those present the necessity of giving the most careful consid- 

 eration to what they had heard. There was, however, no 

 semblance of a discussion. Sir Joseph Hooker writes to me : 

 " The interest excited was intense, but the subject was too 

 novel and too ominous for the old school to enter the lists, 

 before armouring. After the meeting it was talked over with 

 bated breath : Lyell's approval, and perhaps in a small way 

 mine, as his lieutenant in the affair, rather overawed the Fel- 

 lows, who would otherwise have flown out against the doctrine. 

 W 7 e had, too, the vantage ground of being familiar with the 

 authors and their theme."] 



C. Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



Down, July 5th [1858J. 

 My dear Hooker, — We are become more happy and 

 less panic-struck, now that we have sent out of the house 

 every child, and shall remove H., as soon as she can move. 

 The first nurse became ill with ulcerated throat and quinsey ? 

 and the second is now ill with the scarlet fever, but, thank 



