I859-] ENCOURAGEMENT. 169 



of the Eocene and recent periods in different parts of the 

 world could be matched. Not that I think climate nearly so 

 important as most naturalists seem to think. In my opinion 

 no error is more mischievous than this. 



I was very glad to find that Hooker, who read over, in 

 MS., my Geographical chapters, quite agreed in the view of 

 the greater importance of organic relations. I should like 

 you to consider p. 77 and reflect on the case of any organism 

 in the midst of its range. 



I shall be curious hereafter to hear what you think of dis- 

 tribution during the glacial and preceding warmer periods. 

 I am so glad you do not think the Chapter on the Imperfec- 

 tion of the Geological Record exaggerated ; I was more 

 fearful about this chapter than about any part. 



Embryology in Chapter VIII. is one of my strongest points 

 I think. But I must not bore you by running on. My mind 

 is so wearisomely full of the subject. 



I do thank you for your eulogy at Aberdeen. I have 

 been so wearied and exhausted of late that I have for months 

 doubted whether I have not been throwing away time and 

 labour for nothing. But now I care not what the universal 

 world says ; I have always found you right, and certainly on 

 this occasion I am not going to doubt for the first time. 

 Whether you go far, or but a very short way with me and others 

 who believe as I do, I am contented, for my work cannot be 

 in vain. You would laugh if you knew how often I have read 

 your paragraph, and it has acted like a little dram. . . . 



Farewell, 



C. DARWIN. 



C. Darwin to C. Lyell. 



Down, Sept. soth [1859]. 



Mv DEAR LYELL, I sent off this morning the last sheets, 

 but without index, which is not in type. I look at you as my 

 Lord High Chancellor in Natural Science, and therefore 



