Farewell, you have laid me under a load of obligation--not that I feel it a
load. It is the highest possible gratification to me to think that you
have found my book worth reading and reflection; for you and three others I
put down in my own mind as the judges whose opinions I should value most of
all.

My dear Gray, yours most sincerely,
C. DARWIN.

P.S.--I feel pretty sure, from my own experience, that if you are led by
your studies to keep the subject of the origin of species before your mind,
you will go further and further in your belief. It took me long years, and
I assure you I am astonished at the impression my book has made on many
minds. I fear twenty years ago, I should not have been half as candid and
open to conviction.


CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER.
Down, [January 31st, 1860].

My dear Hooker,

I have resolved to publish a little sketch of the progress of opinion on
the change of species. Will you or Mrs. Hooker do me the favour to copy
ONE sentence out of Naudin's paper in the 'Revue Horticole,' 1852, page
103, namely, that on his principle of Finalite. Can you let me have it
soon, with those confounded dashes over the vowels put in carefully? Asa
Gray, I believe, is going to get a second edition of my book, and I want to
send this little preface over to him soon. I did not think of the