Page:Carroll Lane Fenton - Darwin and the Theory of Evolution.djvu/24

proofs! I have fairly to blacken them, and fasten slips of paper on, so miserable have I found the style. You say you dreamt that my book was entertaining; that dream is pretty well over with me. . . ." But gradually the work lessened; on September 30th the last of the regular pages were finished, and only the index remained to be done. It appears that it was handled by someone else, for in the same letter Darwin mentions the practical completion of the book and the plan to go to a hydropathic hospital on "Tuesday or Wednesday." When the next letters were written the Origin of Species was finished, and its author had spent a couple of weeks in rest. To him it was neither a great book, nor even a well-done one; after thirteen months of exacting labor he could see little in it that another could not have done with more success. Yet, even with his knowledge of its incompleteness and imperfections, Darwin was glad it was written—and impatiently eager for it to appear and meet the judgment of those who had taken no part in its production.