d Pseudo Science". "Collected Essays", Vol. V. page 90,
London, 1902.) He felt, however, as many others have done, that in one
respect the very success of Lyell's masterpiece has been the reason why
its originality and influence have not been so fully recognised as they
deserved to be. Written as the book was before its author had arrived at
the age of thirty, no less than eleven editions of the "Principles"
were called for in his lifetime. With the most scrupulous care, Lyell,
devoting all his time and energies to the task of collecting and sifting
all evidence bearing on the subjects of his work, revised and re-revised
it; and as in each edition, eliminations, modifications, corrections,
and additions were made, the book, while it increased in value as a
storehouse of facts, lost much of its freshness, vigour and charm as a
piece of connected reasoning.

Darwin undoubtedly realised this when he wrote concerning the
"Principles", "the first edition, my old true love, which I never
deserted for the later editions." ("M.L." II. page 222.) Huxley once
told me that when, in later life, he read the first edition, he was both
surprised and delighted, feeling as if it were a new book to him. (I
have before me a letter which illustrates this feeling on Huxley's
part. He had lamented to me that he did not possess a copy of the first
edition of the "Principles", when, shortly afterwards, I picked up a
dilapidated copy on a bookstall; this I had bound and sent to my old
teacher and colleague. His reply is characteristic:

October 8, 1884.

My Dear Judd,

You could not have made me a more agreeable present than the copy of the
first edition of Lyell, which I find on my table. I have never been able
to meet with the book, and your copy is, as the old woman said of her
Bible, "the best of books in the best of bindings."

Ever yours sincerely,

T.H. Huxley.

(I cannot refrain from relating an incident which very strikingly
exemplifies the affection for one another felt by Lyell and Huxley. In
his last illness, when confined to his bed, Lyell heard that Huxley was
to lecture at the Royal Institution on the "Results of the 'Challenger'
expedition": he begged me to attend the lecture and bring him an account
of it. Happening to mention this to Huxley, he at once undertook to
go to Lyell in my place, and he did so on the morning following his
lecture. I shall never forget the look of gratitude on the face of the
invalid when he