1 859.] DR. CARPENTER. 223 



tive Physiology,' that your review will be excellently done, and 

 will do good service in the cause for which I think I am not 

 selfishly deeply interested. I am feeling very unwell to-day, 

 and this note is badly, perhaps hardly intelligibly, expressed ; 

 but you must excuse me, for I could not let a post pass 

 without thanking you for your note. You will have a tough 

 job even to shake in the slightest degree Sir H. Holland. I 

 do not think (privately I say it) that the great man has know- 

 ledge enough to enter on the subject. Pray believe me with 

 sincerity, 



Yours truly obliged, 



C. DARWIN. 



P.S. As you are not a practical geologist, let me add that 

 Lyell thinks the chapter on the Imperfection of the Geological 

 Record not exaggerated. 



C. Darwin to W. B. Carpenter. 



Ilkley, Yorkshire, 



November i9th [1859]. 



MY DEAR CARPENTER, I beg pardon for troubling you 

 again. If, after reading my book, you are able to come to a 

 conclusion in any degree definite, will you think me very un- 

 reasonable in asking you to let me hear from you. I do not 

 ask for a long discussion, but merely for a brief idea of your 

 general impression. From your widely extended knowledge, 

 habit of investigating the truth, and abilities, I should value 

 your opinion in the very highest rank. Though I, of course, 

 believe in the truth of my own doctrine, I suspect that no 

 belief is vivid until shared by others. As yet I know only one 

 believer, but I look at him as of the greatest authority, viz. 

 Hooker. When I think of the many cases of men who 

 have studied one subject for years, and have persuaded 



