re anticipated and fairly met;
and this was to a great extent the result of the persistent and very
candid--if always friendly--criticism of Lyell and Hooker.

I think the divergence of mental attitude in Lyell and Darwin must
be attributed to a difference in temperament, the evidence of which
sometimes appears in a very striking manner in their correspondence.
Thus in 1838, while they were in the thick of the fight with
the Catastrophists of the Geological Society, Lyell wrote
characteristically: "I really find, when bringing up my Preliminary
Essays in "Principles" to the science of the present day, so far as I
know it, that the great outline, and even most of the details, stand
so uninjured, and in many cases they are so much strengthened by new
discoveries, especially by yours, that we may begin to hope that
the great principles there insisted on will stand the test of new
discoveries." (Lyell's "Life, Letters and Journals", Vol. II. page 44.)
To which the more youthful and impetuous Darwin replies: "BEGIN TO HOPE:
why the POSSIBILITY of a doubt has never crossed my mind for many a day.
This may be very unphilosophical, but my geological salvation is staked
on it... it makes me quite indignant that you should talk of HOPING."
("L.L." I. page 296.)

It was not only Darwin's "geological salvation" that was at stake, when
he surrendered himself to his enthusiasm for an idea. To his firm faith
in the doctrine of continuity we owe the "Origin of Species"; and while
Darwin became the "Paul" of evolution, Lyell long remained the "doubting
Thomas."

Many must have felt like H.C. Watson when he wrote: "How could Sir
C. Lyell... for thirty years read, write, and think, on the subject of
species AND THEIR SUCCESSION, and yet constantly look down the wrong
road!" ("L.L." II. page 227.) Huxley attributed this hesitation of Lyell
to his "profound antipathy" to the doctrine of the "pithecoid origin of
man." ("L.L." II. page 193.) Without denying that this had considerable
influence (and those who knew Lyell and his great devotion to his wife
and her memory, are aware that he and she felt much stronger convictions
concerning such subjects as the immortality of the soul than Darwin
was able to confess to) yet I think Darwin had divined the real
characteristics of his friend's mind, when he wrote: "He would advance
all possible objections... AND EVEN AFTER THESE WERE EXHAUSTED, WOULD
REMAIN LONG DUBIOUS."

Very touching indeed w