complete_ agreement with Darwin concerning the theory of
Natural Selection. While he followed his friend's investigations with
the deepest interest, his less sanguine nature led him often to despair
of the possibility of solving 'the mystery of mysteries.' As Darwin
wrote only a year before his own death, Lyell 'would advance all
_possible_ objections to my suggestions, and _even after these were
exhausted_ would long _remain dubious_[142].' It is evident from the
correspondence that Darwin was at times tempted to become impatient with
the friend, for whose advocacy of his views he so deeply longed.
Fourteen years after the publication of the _Origin of Species_,
however, Lyell, in his _Antiquity of Man_, gave in his adhesion to
Darwin's theory but, even then, not in the unqualified manner that the
latter desired. Yet I have reason to know that some years before his
death, Lyell was able to assure his friend of his _complete_ agreement,
and Darwin, six years after the loss of his friend, wrote, 'His candour
was highly remarkable. He exhibited this by becoming a convert to the
Descent theory, though he had gained much fame by opposing Lamarck's
views, _and this after he had grown old_.' Darwin adds that Lyell,
referring to the '_fatal_ age' of sixty, said 'he hoped that now he
might be allowed to live[143]!'

When I first came into personal relations with Darwin, after the death
of Lyell in 1875, he was in the habit of deprecating any idea of his
writing on theoretical questions. He used to talk of 'playing with
plants and such things,' and undoubtedly derived the greatest pleasure
from his ingenious experimental researches. The result of this 'play' in
which Darwin took such delight is seen in his books on the _Power of
Movement in Plants_ and _Insectivorous Plants_; full of the records of
ingenious experiments and patient observation.

It was a great relief to Darwin that his friend Wallace was able in 1871
to undertake the preparation of a work on _The Geographical Distribution
of Animals_, for, on many points, the views held by Wallace on this
subject were more in accordance with Darwin's own, than were those of
Lyell and Hooker. Nevertheless, on all questions connected with the
geographical distribution of plants, and the causes by which they were
brought about, Darwin always expressed the fullest confidence in
Hooker's judgment, and the greatest satisfaction with his results.

With regard to another great divisio