Volume II Part 2 (1/2)
I sincerely hope that you keep your health; I suppose that you will be thinking of returning (Mr. Wallace was in the Malay Archipelago.) soon with your magnificent collections, and still grander mental materials.
You will be puzzled how to publish. The Royal Society fund will be worth your consideration. With every good wish, pray believe me,
Yours very sincerely, CHARLES DARWIN.
P.S. I think that I told you before that Hooker is a complete convert.
If I can convert Huxley I shall be content.
CHARLES DARWIN TO W.D. FOX. Ilkley, Yorks.h.i.+re, Wednesday [November 16th, 1859].
... I like the place very much, and the children have enjoyed it much, and it has done my wife good. It did H. good at first, but she has gone back again. I have had a series of calamities; first a sprained ankle, and then a badly swollen whole leg and face, much rash, and a frightful succession of boils--four or five at once. I have felt quite ill, and have little faith in this ”unique crisis,” as the doctor calls it, doing me much good...You will probably have received, or will very soon receive, my weariful book on species, I naturally believe it mainly includes the truth, but you will not at all agree with me. Dr. Hooker, whom I consider one of the best judges in Europe, is a complete convert, and he thinks Lyell is likewise; certainly, judging from Lyell's letters to me on the subject, he is deeply staggered. Farewell. If the spirit moves you, let me have a line...
CHARLES DARWIN TO W.B. CARPENTER. Ilkley, Yorks.h.i.+re, November 18th [1859].
My dear Carpenter,
I must thank you for your letter on my own account, and if I know myself, still more warmly for the subject's sake. As you seem to have understood my last chapter without reading the previous chapters, you must have maturely and most profoundly self-thought out the subject; for I have found the most extraordinary difficulty in making even able men understand at what I was driving. There will be strong opposition to my views. If I am in the main right (of course including partial errors unseen by me), the admission in my views will depend far more on men, like yourself, with well-established reputations, than on my own writings. Therefore, on the supposition that when you have read my volume you think the view in the main true, I thank and honour you for being willing to run the chance of unpopularity by advocating the view.
I know not in the least whether any one will review me in any of the Reviews. I do not see how an author could enquire or interfere; but if you are willing to review me anywhere, I am sure from the admiration which I have long felt and expressed for your 'Comparative 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 pa.s.s, 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 knowledge 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.
CHARLES DARWIN TO W.B. CARPENTER. Ilkley, Yorks.h.i.+re, November 19th [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 unreasonable 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 themselves of the truth of the foolishest doctrines, I feel sometimes a little frightened, whether I may not be one of these mon-maniacs.
Again pray excuse this, I fear, unreasonable request. A short note would suffice, and I could bear a hostile verdict, and shall have to bear many a one.
Yours very sincerely, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Ilkley, Yorks.h.i.+re, Sunday [November 1859].
My dear Hooker,
I have just read a review on my book in the ”Athenaeum” (November 19, 1859.), and it excites my curiosity much who is the author. If you should hear who writes in the ”Athenaeum” I wish you would tell me. It seems to me well done, but the reviewer gives no new objections, and, being hostile, pa.s.ses over every single argument in favour of the doctrine,... I fear from the tone of the review, that I have written in a conceited and c.o.c.ksure style (The Reviewer speaks of the author's ”evident self-satisfaction,” and of his disposing of all difficulties ”more or less confidently.”), which shames me a little. There is another review of which I should like to know the author, viz., of H.C. Watson in the ”Gardener's Chronicle”. Some of the remarks are like yours, and he does deserve punishment; but surely the review is too severe. Don't you think so?
I hope you got the three copies for Foreign Botanists in time for your parcel, and your own copy. I have heard from Carpenter, who, I think, is likely to be a convert. Also from Quatref.a.ges, who is inclined to go a long way with us. He says that he exhibited in his lecture a diagram closely like mine!
I shall stay here one fortnight more, and then go to Down, staying on the road at Shrewsbury a week. I have been very unfortunate: out of seven weeks I have been confined for five to the house. This has been bad for me, as I have not been able to help thinking to a foolish extent about my book. If some four or five GOOD men came round nearly to our view, I shall not fear ultimate success. I long to learn what Huxley thinks. Is your introduction (Introduction to the 'Flora of Australia.') published? I suppose that you will sell it separately. Please answer this, for I want an extra copy to send away to Wallace. I am very bothersome, farewell.