(Manuscript left with Mr. Huxley for his perusal.); it is not so much the
value I set on them, but the remembrance of the intolerable labour--for
instance, in tracing the history of the breeds of pigeons.


CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER.
Down, 25th [December, 1859].

...I shall not write to Decaisne (With regard to Naudin's paper in the
'Revue Horticole,' 1852.); I have always had a strong feeling that no one
had better defend his own priority. I cannot say that I am as indifferent
to the subject as I ought to be, but one can avoid doing anything in
consequence.

I do not believe one iota about your having assimilated any of my notions
unconsciously. You have always done me more than justice. But I do think
I did you a bad turn by getting you to read the old MS., as it must have
checked your own original thoughts. There is one thing I am fully
convinced of, that the future progress (which is the really important
point) of the subject will have depended on really good and well-known
workers, like yourself, Lyell, and Huxley, having taken up the subject,
than on my own work. I see plainly it is this that strikes my non-
scientific friends.

Last night I said to myself, I would just cut your Introduction, but would
not begin to read, but I broke down, and had a good hour's read.

Farewell, yours affectionately,
C. DARWIN.