1 86 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



"Though Dr. Darwin's hesitation in speaking pre- 

 cluded his flow of colloquial eloquence, it did not 

 impede, or at all lessen, the force of that conciser 

 quality, wit. Of satiric wit he possessed a very peculiar 

 species. It was neither the dead-doing broadside of 

 Dr. Johnson's satire, nor the aurora borealis of Gray 

 .... whose arch yet coy and quiet fastidiousness of taste 

 and feeling, as recorded by Mason, glanced bright and 

 cold through his conversation, while it seemed difficult 

 to define its nature ; and while its effects were rather 

 perceived than felt, exciting surprise more than niirth, 

 and never awakening the pained sense of being the 

 object of its ridicule. That unique in humorous verse, 

 the Long Story, is a complete and beautiful specimen 

 of Gray's singular vein. 



"Darwinian wit is not more easy to be defined; 

 instances will best convey an idea of its character to 

 those who never conversed with its possessor. 



" Dr. Darwin was conversing with a brother botanist 

 concerning the plant kalinia, then a just imported 

 stranger in our greenhouses and gardens. A lady who 

 was present, concluding he had seen it, which in fact he 

 had not, asked the doctor what were the colours of the 

 plant. He replied, ' Madam, the kalmia has precisely 

 the colours of a seraph's wing.' So fancifully did he 

 express his want of consciousness concerning the 

 appearance of a flower, whose name and rareness were 

 all he knew of the matter. 



"Dr. Darwin had a large company at tea. His 

 servant announced a stranger, lady and gentleman. 

 The female was a conspicuous figure, ruddy, corpulent, 



