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, Yorkshire,
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