I do not think I hardly ever admired a book more than Paley's 'Natural
Theology.' I could almost formerly have said it by heart.

I am glad you have got my book, but I fear that you value it far too
highly. I should be grateful for any criticisms. I care not for Reviews;
but for the opinion of men like you and Hooker and Huxley and Lyell, etc.

Farewell, with our joint thanks to Mrs. Lubbock and yourself. Adios.

C. DARWIN.


CHARLES DARWIN TO L. JENYNS. (Now Rev. L. Blomefield.)
Ilkley, Yorkshire,
November 13th, 1859.

My dear Jenyns,

I must thank you for your very kind note forwarded to me from Down. I have
been much out of health this summer, and have been hydropathising here for
the last six weeks with very little good as yet. I shall stay here for
another fortnight at least. Please remember that my book is only an
abstract, and very much condensed, and, to be at all intelligible, must be
carefully read. I shall be very grateful for any criticisms. But I know
perfectly well that you will not at all agree with the lengths which I go.
It took long years to convert me. I may, of course, be egregiously wrong;
but I cannot persuade myself that a theory which explains (as I think it
certainly does) several large classes of facts, can be wholly wrong;
notwithstanding the several difficulties which have to be surmounted