600 THE MAKING OF THE * OEIGIN ' 
many ways have you aided me.' Yet again, when this delicate 
situation had been arranged, he adds, ' You must let me once 
again tell you how deeply I feel your generous kindness and 
Lyell's on this occasion ; but in truth it shames me that you 
should have lost time on a mere point of priority.' Still, 
perhaps the greatest service of all was ' making me make this 
abstract ; for though I thought I had got all clear, it has 
clarified my brains much, by making me weigh relative import- 
ance of the several elements,' and * I shall, when it is done, be 
able to finish my work with greater ease and leisure.' 
Perhaps the most remarkable tribute paid by Darwin to 
his friend is that which is given in the ' Life and Letters,' ii. 138. 
The date is October 1858, while he was hard at work on the 
Abstract. Hooker the critic had seemed strangely unmoved 
by the arguments advanced, but a rather despondent note 
praying him not to pronounce too strongly against Natural 
Selection till he had read the Abstract, brought an enthusiastic 
reply, declaring that Darwin's speculations had been a ' jampot ' 
to him. To this Darwin rejoins : 
I wrote the sentence without reflection. But the truth 
is I have so accustomed myself, partly from being quizzed 
by my non-naturahst relations, to expect opposition and 
even contempt, that I forgot for the moment that you are 
the one living soul from whom I have constantly received 
sympathy. Beheve that I never forget even for a minute 
how much assistance I have received from you. 
But Darwin, with his usual generosity of spirit, watching 
the increasing parallelism of their views, feared lest he had 
checked Hooker's original thoughts by discussing his own views 
with him so fully and freely. Hooker would have been the 
last to admit anything of the sort. He, as has been said, while 
gradually loosening the foundations of his former opinions, 
was slow to reach conviction as to the new, and only under 
stress of the completed argument of the ' Origin.' His original 
interest in their common problems connected with Geographical 
distribution and the unsatisfactory views current about species, 
was ever intensified by their constant discussions, while the 
