110 .THE UNFINISHED BOOK. [1858. 



I have got about half written ; but I do not suppose I shall 

 publish under a couple of years. I have now been three 

 whole months on one chapter on Hybridism ! 



I am astonished to see that you expect to remain out three 

 or four years more. What a wonderful deal you will have 

 seen, and what interesting areas the grand Malay Archi- 

 pelago and the richest parts of South America ! I infinitely 

 admire and honour your zeal and courage in the good cause of 

 Natural Science ; and you have my very sincere and cordial 

 good wishes for success of all kinds, and may all your theories 

 succeed, except that on Oceanic Islands, on which subject I 

 will do battle to the death. 



Pray believe me, my dear sir, yours very sincerely, 



C. DARWIN. 



C. Darwin to W. D. Fox. 



Feb. 8th [1858]. 



. . I am working very hard at my book, perhaps too 

 hard. It will be very big, and I am become most deeply 

 interested in the way facts fall into groups. I am like 

 Croesus overwhelmed with my riches in facts, and I mean 

 to make my book as perfect as ever I can. I shall not 

 go to press at soonest for a couple of years. . . . 



t C. Darwin to ?. D. Hooker. 



Feb. 23rd [1858]. 



... I was not much struck with the great Buckle, and I 

 admired the way you stuck up about deduction and induction. 

 I am reading his book,* which, with much sophistry, as it 

 seems to me, is wonderfully clever and original, and with 

 astounding knowledge. 



I saw that you admired Mrs. Farrer's 'Questa tomba' of 



* ' The History of Civilisation.' 



